Racial & Crimial Profiling

As many issues and concerns arise in our everyday lives, it is often difficult to overlook many of the horrific and tragic situations of today’s law enforcement. Regardless of what profession you may be in there are always ways to make improvements to it.

A few of the future and emerging issues that I feel that leaders in the criminal justice system need to address are racial profiling and criminal profiling which each can create a mistrust within a department and violate the civil liberties of citizens. When events such as these begin to surface in the media and within our communities, questions begin to arise about the tendencies of our police agencies. Racial profiling or racially biased form of policing (especially recently in the United States), is any police action initiated on the mere basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin of a suspect.

This is a form of discrimination that is used to target the ethnic, minority communities. Profiling in law enforcement occurs when government agencies and officials decide to investigate a person on suspicion, and the detained suspect committed an illegal offense, based solely on their ethnicity and racial identity. Arrest should be determined and made on the behavior of that individual or on information that leads police to a particular individual that has been identified as being, or having been engaged in some type of criminal activity.

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Racial profiling was an issue that arose over 40 years ago and has resurfaced as a bigoted practice unworthy of the law enforcement professional. It has been and should continue to be widely condemned as contrary to the basic ethical principles. Furthermore, such particular type of action weakens the public’s confidence in the police, thus decreasing police – citizen trust and cooperation. Racial or ethnic indicators associated with a particular suspect or suspected groups may have place in legitimate law enforcement strategies if they accurately relate to the offenders who are being sought for criminal law violations.

The example I chose to support my information about racial profiling is racial and criminal profiling the incident that surrounded the African-American Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. , who was arrested at his home by a white police officer. It was in an upscale community and neighbor observed two black males on the porch; she assumed they were burglars and proceeded to notify the authorities. A white officer came to the home of Mr. Gates who had recently returned from a trip from China, who questioned and then arrested him.

He later realized that the Professor was the homeowner and was behaving suspiciously because he was frustrated and fatigue because he could not immediately locate his keys once he arrived at his home from his trip. This was clearly racial profiling and the professor “fit the profile of a thug”, but he was in did not the picture of being prestigious enough to reside in such an upscale resident also. Hopefully someday society and law enforcement will not judge a person by the color of their skin when making arrest within our communities.

It is often difficult not to revert back to what we have seen on the various criminal-investigative shows when we discuss certain issues with our colleagues, but actual investigators would not use that type of protocol to jeopardize their cases. Criminal profiling should consist of an analogy used by the police while on a scene combined with the details gathered to form an overall conceptual finding of a perpetrator. This is not a concrete method of capturing a criminal, but it will certainly narrow down the persons of interest that are being pursued.

It will also assist to develop some form of similarities between the various crimes that may be occurring in a particular area, the time the incidents are occurring may be a factor, as well as the specific victim being targeted in the situations. Some may not think that this may not be of any importance, but I know that this form of profiling could be essential if it is used properly because the criminal often “gets sloppy and let’s their guard down” and normally this is when they are racial and criminal profiling apprehended. Investigators who deal with violent crime are somewhat experienced with criminal profiling and are behavioral psychologists whose sole job is to profile the criminal mind. “For example, one of the purposes of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit is criminal profiling, and they employ agents who are considered experts at understanding and predicting the minds and behavior of these criminals. The BSU within the FBI is also responsible and accountable for training new agents and researching criminal behavior.

It is imperative that all involved are mindful that criminal profiling should not be used solely to identify and capture criminals. In case, you might have twelve or more suspects who “profile” are all alike, which means that other investigative techniques must be used to identify the real executor. As a matter of fact, to investigate a horrendous crime, is hard and strenuous work. Criminal profiling provides assistance to the detectives with understanding the modus operandi, or the motivation and the habits of brutal killers and sex offenders.

There are four individual areas of investigation that criminal profiling uses and they are antecedent, method, disposal and post offense areas. These areas range from what caused the offender to initially commit the crime, what type of violence was used with each crime, what did he do with the victims afterwards, and how should to how their behavior should ultimately be observed. Three names are well-known in Canada for the atrocious crimes each of them committed, Clifford Olson, Paul Bernardo and Robert Pickton. Olson raped and murdered 11 young boys and girls before he was apprehended. Bernardo raped at least 18 young women but wasn’t caught until he murdered three more. Pickton has been found guilty for the murder of 26 women, but claims to have killed 49. There were signs and similarities that linked the victims and the individuals responsible together. Serial criminals often follow a certain victim guideline racial and criminal profiling and pursue specific fantasies or rituals with their victims.

Police forces long have recognized that serial criminals tend to follow patterns, use particular weapons or methods, and target similar victims” (Dept of Justice, Canada, 2011). In my opinion, I don’t think it is even possible to ever know why some individuals are wired the way they are; it is and will always be a mystery to why certain crimes are committed. racial and criminal profiling.

References

1. http://criminal. lawyers. com/Criminal-Law-Basics/The-Criminal-Profiling-Process. html
2. http://www. victimsofviolence. on. ca/rev2/index. php? option=com_content=view=336=26

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