The titled term is intricately connected with race, ethnicity, minority groups, and other sociological terms. Because America has a history of using race as a criterion in governance decision-making, racial profiling remains significantly pronounced. To be clear, this statement does not absolve other societies of this phenomenon. Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes are some of the terms associated with racial profiling globally. Governance practices that are perceived as being based on racial profiling have garnered public proclamations condemning its practice. While commendable, such proclamations have also obscured its sociological and historical complexities. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a sociological approach to the above-titled phenomenon.
Considering the number of terms associated with the titled phenomenon, defining said terms and phenomenon provide this discussions’ appropriate point of departure. Under the social construction of race-racialization- race is defined as the social process used to mark certain groups for unequal treatment due to superficial physiological differences. Also, this definition makes race a source of identity (Glaser, 2014). Ethnicity describes the shared cultural practices, values, and beliefs of a group. Likewise, this is another identity source. For this discussion, a minority group describes a people who have been isolated on the basis of cultural or physical differences by the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment. Still, stereotypes are overgeneralized notions about a group of people while prejudice comprises the thoughts and sentiments towards those groups (Glaser, 2014). Discrimination refers to actions towards the aforementioned groups. Consequently, racism comprises prejudiced beliefs about specific racial groups. Furthermore, racial profiling is the use of ethnicities and its proxies predominantly by law enforcement officers as grounds for the judgement of criminal suspicion. From these definitions, it is evident that the above-titled term has sociological and historical nuances.
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Sociologically, there are several viewpoints addressing the issue of race and ethnicity as it relates to the titled term. According to functionalists, the dominant and minority racial groups interact to create stable social structures (Glaser, 2014). Conversely, while conflict theorists examine similar interactions, they focus on the power inequalities and struggles between them. Interactionists perceive both race and ethnicity as sources of identity. The culture of prejudice is a concept appreciative of the fact that people are exposed to culturally ingrained stereotypes (Glaser, 2014). Hence, sociology provides numerous perspectives and a concept addressing the title topic and wider race and ethnicity issues.
Considering the fact that discrimination comprises actions against groups of people, racial profiling is but one of the many forms of racially or ethnically-based discrimination. Also, discrimination is associated with the promotion of the dominant groups’ status. Appreciation of the culture of prejudice concept and racialization means that legislation is ineffective when it comes addressing discrimination due to the complexities associated with prevalent educational, political, economic, and criminal systems (Glaser, 2014). Because racial profiling is largely associated with America’s criminal justice department, there is the need to include institutional racism as another form of discrimination. This comprises the mechanisms used to organize the policy and practice of the state, judicial, economic, and political institutions to embed disenfranchisement and produce systematic inequalities. An outcome of this form of discrimination is that it limits peoples action purely on the basis of race (Glaser, 2014). This contributes to the enduring nature of discrimination as it reinforces racial prejudices. Consequently, the eradication of discrimination is a nuanced undertaking.
Despite it being an ambiguous term, the term African American has historic associations among American society with the minority group status. Not only has this term undergone several iterations since the 1900s, but it is representative of all people of African appearance regardless of nationality. Historical evidence provides justification for the prevalent association of the title term with the criminal justice system. Rosich (2007) cites crime and punishment as the site for the display of American racial and inequality as minorities were tried in all Caucasian courtrooms and similarly composed juries. For example, while African Americans comprised about 10% of the population around 1910, they made up to 30% of the prison population (Rosich, 2007). Furthermore, she notes that the role of the police in racial violence, where they were either active participants or failed to control the crowds. While reform movements based on Supreme Court decisions and civil rights movement-inspired legislation have made racial discrimination unconstitutional, racial and ethnic minorities are still overrepresented as offenders, delinquents, and victims in the criminal justice system.
Historical records provide the likely point of origin of study between race and criminality. According to Rosich (2007), W.E.B. Du Bois pioneered such studies, and more than a century later, numerous studies designed to examine at least 3 dimensions like the causes and consequences of racial profiling in criminal justice processing; changes to the pattern of overrepresentation and the extent to which the differences are caused by racial profiling or differential offending rates. Even though the research work done has illuminated the impact and scale of racial profiling in the American criminal justice system, differences in theoretical frameworks and methodologies, the quality and use of data have provided controversial points (Rosich, 2007). Likewise, considering that the focus of official statistics is on street and not white collar crimes, researchers have probed the existence of an intrinsic bias in the official counting systems. Statistically, African Americans are overrepresented in street crime figures while white collar crimes are mainly carried out by Caucasian Americans (Rosich, 2007). Hence, while studies have aided the understanding of racial profiling in the criminal justice system, said studies have also revealed trends underlying complex interactions.
Legal variables like a prior criminal record and the gravity of the offence suggest that there are cases, serious offenses, where race differences in offending are consistent with race differences in sentencing. Equally, social and behavioral research have evolved methodologically to capture the indirect and cumulative racial effects on race differentials (Rosich, 2007). Furthermore, race does interact with socioeconomic and family status to impact criminal justice processing. Evidence of racial profiling that disproportionately affects African Americans exists at specific points of the criminal justice system. Legewie’s (2016) study findings show that the police are more likely to use force against African Americans in situations of African American suspects fatally shooting police officers. Equally, the researcher asserts that under similar circumstances, there was no change in the use of force against Caucasian and Hispanic Americans (Legewie, 2016). Therefore, despite the statistical sophistication, there remains compelling evidence of racial profiling along points of the criminal justice system.
Undoubtedly, and given the history of racial inequality in the American criminal justice system, racial profiling by law enforcement officers disproportionately impacts African American males. They are the recipients of police stop and search exercises, arrests, sentences, and incarcerations that are disproportionate with their general population numbers and minority status (Rosich, 2007: Legewie, 2016). Therefore, along with police departments, African American males are the significantly visible constituent of the racial profiling dynamic, albeit as victims or otherwise directly affected.
A sociological interrogation of the titled phenomenon reveals several perspectives, nuances, and functions of race and ethnicity. Obviously, racial profiling is both prejudicial and discriminatory. The existence of the culture of prejudice, the fact that racialization provides a basis for identity and the complex relations with several societal systems, it is fair to say that racial profiling and other discriminatory practices will continue to persist in current form or evolve into new ones.
References
Glaser, J. (2014). Suspect race: Causes and consequences of racial profiling . New York: Oxford University Press
Legewie, J. (2016). Racial Profiling and Use of Force in Police Stops: How Local Events Trigger Periods of Increased Discrimination. American Journal of Sociology , 122(2). Retrieved from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/687518
Rosich, K., J. (2007). Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System. American Sociologists Association . Retrieved from http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/images/press/docs/pdf/ASARaceCrime.pdf
