Racial Profiling and the War on Terror: Changing Trends and Perspectives

Minorities in the United States have often been treated unfairly by law enforcement agencies. Prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States, Blacks were the main victims of racial profiling. Since the terrorist attack, however, Arabs and Muslims are becoming the primary targets for profiling by law enforcement agencies. There are some remarkable similarities between the profiling of Blacks and the profiling of Arabs and Muslims. In both cases, the fundamental problems with racial profiling are that it violates the civil liberties of innocent people and denies minorities the equal protection of the law. The War on Terror has redefined racial profiling. It has not only led to a shift in the target population, but it has also changed the ways in which racial profiling is conducted

Standing While Black: Distinguishing Lyons in Racial Profiling Cases

Plaintiffs challenging racial profiling must contend with the Supreme Court\u27s decision in City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, which restricted standing for injunctive relief against government officials. This Note articulates a framework for assessing standing for injunctive relief based on case law following Lyons: Plaintiff must demonstrate a sufficiently credible threat of future harm where government conduct was authorized by a policy, practice, or custom and where plaintiff was law-abiding. Lyons analysis focuses exclusively on an individual\u27s likelihood of future harm because the Court was reluctant to let the grievance of one individual support city-wide injunctive relief. Where racial profiling cases raise equal protection claims alleging that groups of individuals are targeted by police, the concerns supporting the Lyons requirement become less relevant. Although the Court has never explicitly distinguished Lyons, in the Court\u27s equal protection decisions, standing is presumed where a group is harmed. Following these decisions, Lyons should be distinguished in racial profiling cases

Racial Profiling: A Status Report of the Legal, Legislative, and Empirical Literature

In recent years, there have been several widely-publicized cases in which racial profiling became police brutality. As well, there have been scores of famous Black men who have offered their personal accounts as victims of racial profiling. All of these have helped to propel the issue onto the nation\u27s front burner. The varied responses to racial profiling indicate the range of groups affected by and concerned about the practice. Notably, this includes former President Bill Clinton, who shared his belief that racial profiling is a national problem. The issue of racial profiling has evoked a wide range of policy responses, including legislation, political commentary, community protests, and empirical study. The groundswell of activity around the topic invites a preliminary assessment and critique of the state of the existing literature on racial profiling. This article, divided into four parts, provides a status report on racial profiling research. The first section discusses and analyzes how the term racial profiling has been defined. The second part categorizes the legislation, federal and state, introduced in response to the problem of racial targeting. This section also provides an overview of the empirical research on racial profiling. The third part includes a critique and assessment of the existing literature and offers a road map for future legislation and research on racial profiling

Racial Profiling: A Status Report of the Legal, Legislative, and Empirical Literature

In recent years, there have been several widely-publicized cases in which racial profiling became police brutality. As well, there have been scores of famous Black men who have offered their personal accounts as victims of racial profiling. All of these have helped to propel the issue onto the nation\u27s front burner. The varied responses to racial profiling indicate the range of groups affected by and concerned about the practice. Notably, this includes former President Bill Clinton, who shared his belief that racial profiling is a national problem. The issue of racial profiling has evoked a wide range of policy responses, including legislation, political commentary, community protests, and empirical study. The groundswell of activity around the topic invites a preliminary assessment and critique of the state of the existing literature on racial profiling. This article, divided into four parts, provides a status report on racial profiling research. The first section discusses and analyzes how the term racial profiling has been defined. The second part categorizes the legislation, federal and state, introduced in response to the problem of racial targeting. This section also provides an overview of the empirical research on racial profiling. The third part includes a critique and assessment of the existing literature and offers a road map for future legislation and research on racial profiling

Free Will, Anger and Murder: Examining Native Son 75 Years Later

Celebrated in the annual John Howard Birss, Jr. Memorial Lecture Series, the novel explores themes of racial profiling and disenfranchisement

Vulnerabilities and Economic Wellbeing of Hispanics in Non-Metro Missouri

Non-metro Missouri has observed a net in-migration in the last decennial period and great part of these immigrants are Latinos (Lazos and Jeanetta). The literature contends that Latinos are being pulled into the rural areas by large agricultural operations and pushed out of urban areas by harsh immigration laws, and low job availability. The "context of reception" (Portes and Rumbaut) of communities where Latino newcomers settle impacts on how well they can integrate to the economy and settle as residents. This research addresses the factors explaining vulnerabilities faced by Latinos, and their economic conditions in non-metro Missouri, using the 2000 Census and Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) as well as county level data on racial profiling and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) database. The livelihoods framework (Chambers and Conway; Valdivia and Gilles; Bebbington; Ellis), a focus on capabilities, capitals, and the enabling context frames the study of the vulnerability of Latinos with respect to economic success. Racial profiling is a measure of the enabling context in communities. Regression of US born Latino wages on educational attainment, English interacting with education, work experience and mobility are significant. For foreign born Latinos significant factors are education, the interaction of education and good and low English ability, gender, work experience, racial profiling, and mobility. Being a foreign born Latina, racial profiling and mobility have all negative effects on earnings. Both low and high English ability interacting with education has a positive impact. Mobility's negative effect suggests further study of moving, which may be related to the Context of Reception.context of reception, immigration, Latinos, livelihood, racial profiling, vulnerability, Consumer/Household Economics,

No Exit: Racial Profiling and Canada\u27s War against Terrorism

After September 11, 2001, some scholars and policy-makers promoted the racial profiling of Arabs and Muslims as a means towards greater national security. While racial profiling has not been officially sanctioned in Canada, it attracts popular support and undeniably takes place. The first part of this article identifies three different categories of racial profiling in the context of Canada\u27s War against Terrorism. The second part identifies the problems associated with racial profiling. It argues that racial profiling undermines national security while also heightening the vulnerability and exclusion of Arabs, Muslims, and other racialized groups in Canada

No Exit: Racial Profiling and Canada\u27s War against Terrorism

After September 11, 2001, some scholars and policy-makers promoted the racial profiling of Arabs and Muslims as a means towards greater national security. While racial profiling has not been officially sanctioned in Canada, it attracts popular support and undeniably takes place. The first part of this article identifies three different categories of racial profiling in the context of Canada\u27s War against Terrorism. The second part identifies the problems associated with racial profiling. It argues that racial profiling undermines national security while also heightening the vulnerability and exclusion of Arabs, Muslims, and other racialized groups in Canada

Assessing the Counterfactual: The Efficacy of Drug Interdiction Absent Racial Profiling

This Article investigates the costs and benefits of racial profiling in the context of drug interdiction. I begin by reviewing the empirical economic and civil rights literature regarding the existence and rationality of racial profiling and then build an explicit model of a trooper\u27s decision to search a stopped vehicle. Estimating the model using stop and search data from a portion of Interstate 95 in Maryland, I find that the Maryland State Police use the motorist\u27s race as a factor in deciding which stopped vehicles to search. This result persists even after controlling for many other descriptive variables that impact the trooper\u27s decision to search. I then introduce an additional model that controls for race\u27s role in the search decision and estimates the counterfactual: the change in the amount of drugs the police would find if they ignored race as a factor in the search decision. Applying that model, I find that race is the strongest predictor of identifying drug traffickers, but that racial profiling comes at significant cost, as black motorists who are subject to search are also more likely to be innocent than their white counterparts