Racial Profiling versus Behavioral Profiling Research Paper

Racial Profiling versus Behavioral Profiling - Research Paper Example In today’s digital age, millions of profiles are floating around the Internet detailing the intimate details of individuals for the entire world to see. In short, there are many reasons why profiles are in existence today. Profiling has since taken on a deeper and more potent use for law enforcement personnel around the world, but particularly in the United States. Due to recent violent and tumultuous tragedies, including international and domestic instances of terrorism, racial and behavioral profiling has become the norm by which certain individuals are targeted as potential threats. Some would argue the ability to identify potential threats to human society, regardless if they are proven or not, is a highly useful tool that law enforcement personnel have to choice but to employ. Others would argue that they should never be targeted simply because of their race or their propensity to behave in a certain way, regardless of the actions they might be profiled to have the potent ial to commit. This paper will look at two main types of criminal profiling in use today, racial and behavioral, and weigh the arguments for and against the continued deployment of the technique. In the end, a solid conclusion will be reached as to the potential advantages and disadvantages of each moving forward. Racial Profiling Explained Simply put, racial profiling is term used to described that process by which an individual or public agency, typically law enforcement personnel, look at the race of ethnicity of an individual and use that as a primary determinant when deciding whether or not to question the person further (Bou-Habib, 2011, p. 33). The use of racial profiling is most commonly employed in the United States when making traffic stops or in making an arrest. Needless to say, racial profiling has become quite controversial, even prompting many localities to declare the practice illegal. There are strong voices on both sides of issues who either claim the practice of r acial profiling is beneficial to society or that it pushes society back to pre Civil Rights era human rights violations. Through the years, multiple definitions have been presented to describe racial profiling in an attempt either to validate its use, or to demonize it. As mentioned, the most commonly held belief is that racial profiling is used by law enforcement to determine if a particular individual may have been involved in a crime. This determination is made on the basis of a person’s race, ethnicity, or national origin. When compared to recent crime statistics in the area, an individual may be targeted by police on the basis of these characteristics alone (Higgins, 2008, p. 2). When using racial profiling in this manner, law enforcement do not consider the actual behavior of the individual in determining whether or not to question and suspect them of a crime. Some consider racial profiling to be an inappropriate use of power. This viewpoint takes the position that poli ce who use such profiling tactics are racially biased and use the race and ethnicity of an individual as the sole determining factor when deciding to intervene and question an individual. They argue that since the behavior of the person was not called into question, the very fact that the individual is being targeted is paramount to racial injustice and that the practice should immediately cease to exist (Higgins, 2008, p