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Identifying and Measuring Racial Profiling by the Police
Author(s) -
Farrell Amy,
McDevitt Jack
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
sociology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1751-9020
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00261.x
Subject(s) - racial profiling , profiling (computer programming) , law enforcement , criminology , sociology , racism , political science , law , race (biology) , computer science , gender studies , operating system
Over the past decade, public concern about racial profiling and racially disparate treatment of drivers during routine traffic stops has become a critical issue facing law enforcement. Racial disparities in traffic stops, citations and searches impose serious costs on minority citizens and can strain relationships between community members and the police. Over the past decade, researchers, police administrators and legal advocates have employed various methodologies to measure whether or not, and under what conditions, racial profiling exists. Despite a proliferation of research on the subject, many questions about how to best measure racial profiling remain unanswered. This study provides an overview of the problem of racial profiling and discusses the strengths and limitations of the most common research strategies that have been used to identify and measure the prevalence of the problem.