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Racial Profiling/Biased Policing
Author(s) -
Mosher Clayton
Publication year - 2011
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.1751-9020.2011.00403.x
Subject(s) - racial profiling , profiling (computer programming) , criminology , ethnic group , racial bias , sociology , race (biology) , racism , political science , law , gender studies , computer science , operating system
Media and legal attention to the issue of racial profiling in the United States intensified in the 1990s, with numerous studies from a wide range of jurisdictions revealing evidence of biased policing. This article briefly examines the history of biased policing in the United States, discusses the results of some of the more recent studies as well as studies of biased policing in other countries, and also devotes considerable attention to important theoretical and methodological issues in conducting research on racial profiling. These issues include how race/ethnicity should be coded, how to establish an appropriate denominator/benchmark in racial profiling studies, and what factors in addition to race/ethnicity need to be considered in analyses of bias in citations/arrests/and searches. Although attention to racial profiling waned somewhat after the September 11, 2001, attacks, recent events suggest a renewed interest in this problem.