Recent studies have shown the black people in America are far more likely to be pulled over and searched while driving their motor vehicles. Other statistics show that the highest rates of crime in the United States is perpetrated by black people. The interesting Sociological question here is are black people committing more crimes or are they caught more often because of racial profiling, thus skewing the statistics?
11 April 2011
Racial Profiling
Recent studies have shown the black people in America are far more likely to be pulled over and searched while driving their motor vehicles. Other statistics show that the highest rates of crime in the United States is perpetrated by black people. The interesting Sociological question here is are black people committing more crimes or are they caught more often because of racial profiling, thus skewing the statistics?
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It's quite obvious that racial profiling is a very common occurance, although this isn't the question at hand. To be completely honest, I don't know the race to crime statistics in the United States. However, in my oppinion, I highly doubt that black people are committing more crimes than whites, asians, etc. It's the classic example of a cop seeing a black person, and looking for a reason to pull them over, harass them, etc. due to their own personal beliefs and suspicions on race an ethnicity, and hence trying to make an arrest or issue a ticket for their quota. Cops may look at black people as more likely to committ a crime - I doubt that's the case. People are peole, there's very upstanding black people and white people that don't committ any crimes at all, and vice versa. I mean, look at your common white American teenager, who breaks the law on a daily basis. We don't always get caught, but the crimes are still being done. The color of someone's skin doesn't determine their likelyness to be a criminal, people of all race, age, and religeon break the law. The only reason is that black people are targeted heavily by police and other authourities, hence they get caught more frequently. Numerous artists, even, have written songs and made large movements on racial profiling. It's no new phenomenon, this has been in practice for a long time. Long story short, racial profiling happens all the time, definitely effects common criminal statistics, and it should really be a top priority of local authourities to stop this unwritten practice.
Racial profiling does mess up the statistics because it focuses to much on only one group of people so the police never see other crimes by other groups of people being committed. Everyone at some point in their life committs a crime, whether it is small or big. So when the police pull over someone driving and search them, theres a pretty good chance that they are going to find something. By focusing on just one group of people they skew the statistics and make things look a lot worse than they are. I'm sure if the police pulled over just as many white people as black people than they would find that they are committing just as many crimes or even more. It would not surprise me if white people were found to be committing a lot more crimes than blacks because they feel they are less likely to get caught.
I 100% believe that due to racial profiling, more blacks are caught committing crimes than whites. For example, at nighttime, there are way more police officers in Hartford than in Newington. Police know where the main crimes are committed, so they go to those areas. Yes, I believe that a stereotype is still around that more blacks are crminals than whites, but i believe that the police and security search for a reason to arrest blacks. Because of the fact that more blacks live in inner cities, i feel that it is easier to get caught there because there are so many cops around all the time. So I do agree 100% that racial profiling still goes on today, but I feel that our police system knows where the crime is and expects crime to happen in certain areas, so thats where they go to.
Racial profiling is definitely a factor in screwing the statistics for crime and race. It's unlikely that black people over every other race, it's likely however that police know about the crime statistics with race and know that black people supposedly commit more crimes so this prior knowledge, when police do happen to see a black person they already think that they possibly are doing something illegal or have something illegal. So with more and more cops seeing black people as law breakers it's no surprise that they pull them over more and search their cars more, because they automatically assume they're doing something wrong. When it comes down to it statistics or not people are people and just because of your color doesn't make you act or become different from any other race.
There is no denying that racial profiling in our country does occur, whether it be from authority figures, such as police or judges, or from everyday civilians. This definately impacts any statistic's validity showing crime rates among races. I personally do not believe that any human being is more likely to commit a crime just based on their race. Even if this statistic were true, and African-Americans are more likely to commit crimes, it is only because of the conditions they are kept in by our society. Whether we choose to see it or not, racism still exists in our culture. I honestly think if the majority of white people were forced into urban areas to work minimum wage jobs, recieve cheap, ineffectve educations, and live in unsanitary conditions, the crimes in the US would be commited by mostly caucasions. Even as civilized as we have come to be, we are still animals by instinct, and humans will always do what they see necissary to survive.
There is no doubt in my mind that black people are more likely to be caught doing a crime not because they commit more crimes but because of racial profiling. It usually can't be proved if a cop is racial profiling or not but it's definitely something that should be looked into a little more. A police officer or someone calling the police could be racist and we don't know it because they may not voice their opinions about it as often as other but it's still there and can make them more suspicious of black people than most other races. But in reality I do believe that black people are just simply caught more than others but they commit the same amount of crimes, everyone else just isn't caught as much.
I definitely think that they are just be caught because of racial profiling. I think it has to do with stereotyping people. For example if a white man is speeding and a cop sees a black man speeding they think they will have a better chance of catching the black man doing some thing else that is illegal. Additionally I think it has to do with the community or city the cop is in. A cop from rocky hill that hardy sees blacks so then they do they think there up to no good and are breaking the law. In cities like hartford cops are not able to make stereotypes so easily because there are so may blacks. I definitely think that the police should not racial profile because by wasting there time on someone that is not doing anything they are miss out on catching a dangerous criminal.
Racial Profiling is an unfortunate
problem that even finds its way into our justice system. Many times police will use their power of discretion more harshly against a minority, especially when they are of a different race than the officer. This idea reminds me of the Jay-Z song, 99 problems. In the song an officer pulls him over for going 55 in a 54. When Jay-Z is asked if he knows why he is being arrested he responds, "Because I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low? Do I look like a mind-reader? I don't know." Jay-Z has a very valid point in his response. Many times a simple traffic violation could accelerate into a full search of the vehicle just because the officer suspects the minority to have illegal things in their car. Thus, just because of race, a person would be more likely to be caught with illegal drugs or weapons.
It is obvious that racial profiling is skewing the statistics. If you look at any one race more than others, chances are you will find there are a lot of people of that race who have committed a crime. The population in this case is not random and is in favor of black people committing crimes. No one goes through life without committing a crime; everyone has broken a law at some point. If you racially profile any race, you will find more ofte than not, that the people you catch will have committed a crime at some point. Therefore, racial profiling is skewing the statistics in this case.
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