Race Culture and Public Safety Research Paper

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Race, Culture and Public Safety

How have this week's readings challenged your own beliefs about race and culture and its relevance to the construction of public safety in America? What had a particular impact on your ideas about emerging safety issues? These can be negative as well as positive comments. Also, consider ethnicity.

Police officers often find themselves torn between two competing needs. On one hand, they must serve the laws of the land and obey the U.S. Constitution. This means that they cannot conduct illegal searches and seizures based upon an individual's nation of origin or race. On the other hand, profiling is endemic to the profession of law enforcement. Anecdotally, there is a great deal of evidence that police officers are only human and are subject to the same racial prejudices as other Americans. Of course, part of the duty of an officer is to rise above these gut feelings. But there is an institutionalized acceptance of profiling within law enforcement, based upon suspect profiles.

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At the most basic level, a complete description of a suspect requires a racial identification. The FBI and other law enforcement offices may engage in psychological profiling of suspects that involves racial categorization, when confronted with a crime with few leads. The idea that, based upon statistical evidence, that most serial killers are male and Caucasian is a 'profile' just as much as a terrorist action perpetuated by a member of Al Qaida is statistically more likely to be perpetrated by an individual of a particular ethnic extraction.

However, there are many arguments against the use of racial profiling. First and foremost, it is necessary to have community participation in policing efforts. Members of historically-discriminated against groups living in high crime areas will be less likely to participate in neighborhood watches, for example, if there is a sense that they may be stopped simply for a 'DWB' -- 'Driving While Black' offense. Evidence that is gathered illegally not based upon good faith….....

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