First of all to better understand racial profiling I looked up the Encyclopedia definition: Racial profiling is the use of race as a consideration in suspect profiling or other law enforcement practices.¹ Our criminal justice book defines it as “any police initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than the behavior of an individual, or on information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity.²” (Schmalleger 757) I think it is best summed up as it the practice of using race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion as the primary factor in deciding who to subject to law enforcement investigations.

Many people, usually minorities, experience it every day, as they suffer the humiliat

ion of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion, or ethnicity. Racial profiling is a law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and different assumptions about the inclination of African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. Advocates are divided on whether race should be: considered if it's statistically significant or never considered for any reason at all

This however, is not a racial factor, as the connection is between the attribute of the person (fundamentalist Muslim) and the group (terrorist). However, since Islam is associated with certain countries (Arab states, Pakistan, North Africa, etc.), and since fundamentalist Muslims are all Muslims, people from these countries (who are more likely to be Muslim than someone who appears to be White and Swedish), are statistically more likely to be terrorists. In other words, just as the majority of Americans are not terrorists, so too most Arabs are peaceable. However, as it is prohibitively difficult, disruptive and expensive to stop all travelers, there is a bigger chance of catching a terrorist by stopping all Arabs if it has been found that 0.1% of Arabs are terrorists whereas only 0.01% of Caucasians are terrorists. This does leave the country vulnerable to people who do not fit the stereotype. Although the Department of Justice recently issued guidelines on the use of race in law enforcement, its directive had a huge "national security" exception and lacked any enforcement mechanism.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, the issue of "racial profiling" has become a hot topic. Its debated whether or not i

Some topics in this essay:
, Terrorist Attacks, United Kingdom, Department Justice, XIV Section, Man's Pass, White Swedish, Islamic Fundamentalist, American Arab, racial profiling, law enforcement, Muslims Muslims, fundamentalist muslim terrorist, race ethnicity national, enforcement resources, white suburbanites, stopped police, tool law, race ethnicity, types crimes, tool law enforcement, ethnicity national origin, national origin, ethnicity national, law enforcement resources,