The True Evil of Racial Profiling

Originally I was going to write this post about my views on felons being able to vote, but I started thinking about racism and racial profiling and that's what this post is going to be on.

I think the issue of race and crime is not one that is understood by either liberals or conservatives, or really by those who are involved in committing it.

The problem that no one seems to want to address is the fact that there is unintentional racial profiling that is more common than believed, with a vicious cycle wherein law enforcement officers (and many other white people) believe based initially on stereotypes that minorities "look like criminals" sometimes or fit the stereotypical depiction of a criminal, and cultural perceptions that minorities commit more crime. It therein follows that the stereotypical criminal to them is a minority, and they are "on the lookout" for criminals who meet their description. Statistics do show that there are more minorities in prison then there are whites, at least as a proportion of the prison population, even though minorities aren't any more likely to be criminals than whites. Therefore, when someone of a minority is stopped by the police and questioned or searched, the police believe (based on cultural perceptions and statistics, not inherent racism) that minorities seem more likely to be criminals because statistics (that are skewed) show that they are convicted of crimes more than whites. The person who is stopped believes (rightfully) that they are being targeted for questioning or search because of their race.

This bears no relationship to whether someone is guilty of the crimes the police suspect them of or not. Its indeed possible for someone to be both a target of racial profiling and guilty of a serious crime at the same time. These are what I shall call "reinforcement" cases, because they reinforce the perceptions that many whites have that minorities are more likely to be criminals. Then, when those very same whites (and some minorities have these same perceptions also) serve on a jury, and the defendant is of a minority, they believe (based on cultural perceptions) that the person seems guilty because they look like their stereotype of a criminal and therefore are more likely to convict the defendant if the case is very close. Judges are not immune to this either, and they are likely to believe that the defendant, when found guilty (and in many cases they are guilty) should be given a very severe sentence. Meanwhile, a defendant who is white and does not look like the stereotypical criminal is more likely to be given a less severe sentence. This doesn't mean that jurors are not going to rationally think about the case, nor does it mean that the judge is going to not think about the sentence, and indeed, they are quite open to the possibility that the defendant might be innocent. However, it means that the defense has to show that the defendant is innocent and is not the stereotypical criminal that they may resemble. The same thing happens with the sentencing phase. Meanwhile, the opposite things often happen for whites.

Its not that people are convicted solely because of their race, or that those who are stopped largely (but not entirely, as circumstances might otherwise be suspicious whatever the race of the suspect) because of their race are not guilty. Many of the people who are stopped are guilty, and this reinforces the cultural perceptions and makes being objective more difficult for law enforcement officers.

Let me say here that I think that law enforcement officers (whether local police, state police, FBI, ATF, or any other agency) are (the vast vast majority anyway) extremely dedicated to fairly enforcing the law, and that I have nothing against law enforcement officers at all whatsoever provided that they do their jobs correctly, which the vast majority of them do.

The results of racial profiling are tragic for all involved. Because of racial profiling, many minorities become suspicious of law enforcement officers when they shouldn't be. They could become less likely to call the police when they should, less likely to report a crime, and more likely to believe other minorities who say that they are being accused because of racial profiling, even if they are guilty and should be convicted and duly sentenced. They do this because they believe rightfully that minorities are often unfairly targeted, and they are unfairly targeted because of the cultural stereotypes. Therefore, society becomes balkanized and there is more racism and more bias than there has been before. Also, it creates the belief (correct) for minorities that the law and the legal system are biased against them, and there is still plenty of subtle (and largely though not entirely unintentional) discrimination.

There is another tragic consequence of racial profiling that is not widely considered: it means that white criminals are more likely to get away with crimes because they are less likely to be caught, and it means that those white criminals who are caught and deserve the full sentence get let off more easily. This is not a guaranteed result, but they start out in court in many cases with something of an advantage due to the cultural perception. The cultural stereotype that whites are less likely to commit crime means that crime in white neighborhoods, particularly drug use and sales, as well as other more serious offenses, are underinvestigated and underprosecuted. This means that criminals who are guilty of serious crimes are not caught and are free to commit crime again. When they are caught and convicted they are given a lighter sentence and are out of prison sooner, or sometimes they don't get prison sentences at all.


Here is the vicious cycle of racial profiling--

1. Cultural perceptions from long ago that were racist in nature indicated that minorities were more likely to be criminals than whites.

2. Law Enforcement Officers share the stereotypical view of criminals in many cases and are more likely to stop or question minorities because they suspect more of them of committing crimes because they meet the stereotypical definition of criminals.

3. Because many of the people they arrest even due to racial profiling are guilty, it reinforces the perception that minorities are more likely to be criminals.

4. Some minorities (justifiably) lose trust in the laws, white criminals get lesser sentences for the same crime, and crime among whites is underinvestigated and underprosecuted, reinforcing the cultural perception even more.

Steps two through four are often repeated.

We have come a long way both with reducing discrimination and improving race relations, but in order to achieve a truly colorblind society we must, among other things, get rid of racial profiling wherever it can be found.