Racial profiling in law enforcement (Research Paper Sample)

Racial profiling in law enforcement a critical analysis of conflict theory. Abstract Criminal justice research gives conflict theory researchers and scholars the proper foundation to advance their studies on how the theory relates to law enforcement. Criminal justice and its fundamental pillars may also greatly assist in providing relevant data and theoretical frameworks that support fundamental claims in law enforcement. Criminal justice and conflict theory frameworks can explain how law enforcement agents relate to society and how race is the underlying constraint in the relationship between the two. For example, the role of race in profiling African American individuals and the use of force by law enforcement agents. This study of the conflict theory tries to explain how law enforcement relates to society and profiling of minorities affects the relationship. Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc114937409 \h 4current academic literature on the theory PAGEREF _Toc114937410 \h 5current application of the theory in the professional setting PAGEREF _Toc114937411 \h 11Police violence in the USA PAGEREF _Toc114937412 \h 16Future implications PAGEREF _Toc114937413 \h 17Compromising the future of the society. PAGEREF _Toc114937414 \h 17Bad relationship between the community and law enforcement. PAGEREF _Toc114937415 \h 18Reduced sense of belonging. PAGEREF _Toc114937416 \h 19Protests, Riots and Violence PAGEREF _Toc114937417 \h 20Economic impact. PAGEREF _Toc114937418 \h 21References PAGEREF _Toc114937419 \h 22Appendix PAGEREF _Toc114937420 \h 26 Introduction  Law enforcement is a task where law officers ensure that security is provided for the citizens to go about their daily businesses within the set legal parameters through deterrence and prevention. Law officers also intervene to stop violations of the laws of the land. Law enforcement is the duty of the law enforcement officers tasked with preventing and detention of crime and criminals to ensure that there is law and order. Law enforcement officers include all agencies that exercise police power. All law enforcement agents are given the capacity and mandate to provide human and state security under democratic and civil control in line with the rule of law. Racial profiling can be defined as an initiative by law enforcement agents that depends on racial grounds, nation of origin or ethnicity instead of the behavior of individuals or evidence that tips law enforcement agents to a given person recognized as a criminal and engaging in any criminal activities. President Bill Clinton, in his speech at the strengthening police-community relationship conference in 1999, described racial profiling as an excellent example of bad police work, very corrosive to the community, and morally indefensible. Racial profiling, to him, is not based on hard facts but just stereotypes, and he said that it should be put to an end because it is distractive. Conflict theory is an essential theoretical framework in law enforcement that tries to explain the different behaviors perceived by law enforcement agents. Karl Marx developed the theory as a sociological theory due to the never-ending competition among social classes for resources. According to Karl Marx, conflict does not fall to any side of the good or bad   Spectrum, but to him, conflict is an unavoidable aspect of the nature of human beings. The conflict theory was majorly an economic perspective driven by power and disadvantage, which brought about racial and ethnic divide but was later adopted in the criminal justice system as a part of the theory in law enforcement. In today’s American society, race, poverty and crime are believed to be linked, and having a broad analysis of this picture of inequality may give a better insight into the law enforcement power exerted. This paper will mainly study the relationship between race and racial profiling by law enforcement agencies in American cities. Under conflict theory, the paper will also assess comparative conflict theory and critical race theory in racial profiling under law enforcement.   The comparative conflict theory mainly focuses on given perceptions of injustice in various ethnic and racial settings. The theory was developed by (Hagan et al., 2005) with the assertion that whites face way fewer injustice than black Americans, with the Hispanics facing majority of injustices compared to the two groups. The critical race theory was developed by (Derrick et al., 1980) to explain racial inequalities in the justice system. It was adopted to describe the injustice faced by different ethnic groups by different law enforcement. current academic literature on the theory criminal profiling of people of color is not new in America. Racial profiling has been growing from historical times through the continuous criminalization of black. According to research done by (Gabbidon,1994), labelling black people in his research as Blackophobia while (Armour,1997) calls this kind of criminal profiling Negrophobia. For centuries, the black American community has faced this kind of profiling, and they have always dealt with the effects of being considered the most criminal population in America. Law enforcement has tagged African Americans as criminals and has always believed that people of the race require more scrutiny because of the criminal label, even though most of the black community is not associated with criminal activities but just a few. In their research, the conflict theory has been used by (Smith & Alpart,2002) as an explanatory model for racial profiling stops in the country. In research done by (Chevigny,1990), police violence is an attribute to profiling and social attributes derived from social beliefs. Some of this violence include homicides that are done in the name of law enforcement and public protection. However, the most gruesome cases are witnessed in the minority ethnic groups compared to the white majority. (Kania and Mackey 1977) Their study on police violence and homicides in the United States explained that violent crime was the main driver of police brutality. This study supported the theory that the trigger for this kind of violence witnessed is environmental. The environment the officers are in is what triggers them to act the way they do. In today’s society, most individuals believe that crime is associated with the minority African American ethnic group. This environmental trigger may explain the continued use of excessive force toward suspected black individuals. These kinds of assumptions are examples of environmental triggers that Kania and Mackey talk about in their research. (Blauner,1972) argues in his research that the existence of ethical and racial minorities is believed to be a threat to the majority. Law enforcers pick some of these triggers, and in the long run, the social beliefs make them biased in their work to ensure there is law and order. Profiling of black individuals, killings by law enforcement and association of blacks with a crime can be used as an example of this social bias nature and coercive social control outcome. In a research done by (Lee, 2000) on Shopping while black, he noted that the black community faced a lot of racial profiling from all the other ethnic communities, especially the male African American was the most affected by the profiling.in his study, Lee explains that African Americans also faced the same profiling from store owners who were from the same race making the stereotype even more intriguing. Lee also found out that the profiling did not matter when it came to the social class of the individuals’ people of color faced the same irrespective of their social status. Their counterpart, white people in the same stores, were given preferential treatment. (Fifield,2001) in his research on Shopping, while black discussed one store in particular, Dillard’s department stores. In the research, he claims that it was revealed that up to six officers that worked in the store testified to racially profiling the store customers, in particular the African American customers who were watched closely compared to customers from other races. His research provides data evidence of the number of false arrests made in the store for African Americans, which is significantly higher than any other ethnic group at 16%. (Russell,1999) in his research also came across a high-profile incident of Shopping while black, which brought the profiling of blacks to the spotlight. The incident involved three young black American boys falsely accused of shoplifting in an Eddie Bauer retail store. It was later found that the three had purchased the items from the store. The case went to trial, and the store ended up compensating the three for consumer racism. In their research, the incidences were not only reserved for the shops owned by whites but also people of the same race and ethnic groups also portrayed the same behavior against their counterparts. (Bleemer 1994) did research on a high-profile individual accused by law enforcement of credit card fraud. Claude Colemen, an African American municipal judge, was arrested while shopping when officers who claimed to be following him from various stores and they claimed to have video evidence of him committing a criminal act. To add to all the false accusations, one of the officers went on to racially abuse Colemen. The case was later settled, and action was taken against the officers. The case of Shopping while black is not only reserved for customers. According to (a Capital Times editorial by Billups, 2000), employees also go through racial profiling. In their editorial, they give a case of how employees of given stores are made to go through random and frequent searches when they leave the store, mostly done for employees of color. The lowest point of racial profiling was when one Fredrick Finley was killed for suspicion of shoplift...