Racial Profiling in the Criminal Justice System

Racial Profiling
Name:
Institution
Racial Profiling in the Criminal Justice System
In the United States of America, the issue on equality has always been at the heart of the society. Dating back to the 1960s when the civil rights movement was intensive in ensuring this profound aspect in society was attained, the gains have indeed come from far. However, while the rights of minorities in general have continued to be addressed and effected, one has entrenched itself into the criminal justice system and threatens to cripple the very gains that were fought for decades ago. From a definitive point of view, racial profiling describes a type of judgment through which law enforcement uses one’s ethnic background and race as the cause to suspect that the person has gone against the law. When it comes to racial profiling, the number of the minority who are at the mercy of law enforcers continues to skyrocket and as such, a course for concern. Therefore, this paper takes an in-depth look at the effect of racial profiling in the criminal justice system and the changes that have and need to be made to address this issue.
While there are many issues affecting the criminal justice system, one may wonder why the writer chose “racial profiling”. The reason was based on two things; the human rights issues involved and the effects that racial profiling has caused. Throughout the 1960s, several Rights and Acts based on discrimination were passed to ensure equality in the American society. There was the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination in employment, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and finally, the 1968 Fair Housing Act (Free, 2003). By threatening these legal acts, racial discrimination in the criminal justice system required to be addressed. The other criterion used for selecting racial profiling was, the degree of the effects caused by the said issue. It is without doubt that racial profiling disfranchises the minority through loss of education, negative psychological effects and the rising of anti-social behaviors amongst its victims.
However, while the rate of addressing this issue has not been satisfactory, certain changes have been made within and outside the criminal justice system to address racial profiling. Such changes are aimed at developing a better society where no becomes a suspect of a crime s/he has not participated in. There are several enforcement changes that have been put in place in different states, to curb the issue of racial profiling. For instance, as of 2013, most law enforcement stations e.g. state law enforcement headquarters began carrying out assessment and research based on racial disparity through the use of CCTV cameras mounted on roads and analyzing arrest reports submitted by police officers (Glover, 2009). This was and still continues to be done so as to determine whether minorities such as colored people are disproportionately represented at the various decision points of the police such as at traffic stops and arrests. By recording such information to ensure race is not a factor at such stops and arrests, the number of affected persons has gone down. This is evident because officers now know they are b...