Racial and Criminal Profiling - Assignment Example

? Racial and Criminal Profiling: Response to Questions Racial and criminal profiling is one of the pertinent topics, as faras criminal justice is concerned. This paper responds to various questions regarding the subject. In part 1, the paper suggests that cautionary notices regarding the use of criminal data aimed at discouraging the misuse of statistics. In part II, this paper defines various terminologies as applied in the racial and criminal profiling context, including prejudice, discrimination, bias, conformity and stereotypes, so on. Moreover, the common types of stereotypes are those committed on the basis of race, age, gender, ethnic group, race and sexual orientation status. In Part III, this paper argues that there is substantial evidence that arrests are still being carried out on the basis of racial bias. Subsequently, it maintains that cultural factors have an impact on crime commitment. Introduction Racial and criminal profiling is one of the pertinent topics, as far as criminal justice is concerned. There are concerns about the use and interpretation of the used statistics. There are also the concerns that the profiled information of criminals always reveals certain flaws in the justice system. This leads to the advocacy of the affirmative action, which attracts various questions and issues. This seeks to respond to various questions regarding racial and criminal profiling such as the mentioned, as well the definition of various terminologies underlying the topic. PART I Response to part 1 This cautionary notice is given on the basis that criminal incidences are governed by a range of factors that are largely ignored based on such simple inferences. What this implies is that such data is likely to be biased in giving the information about the scene on the ground. For instance, the introduction of ranks in terms of criminal incidents to states may serve to reinforce the fact that people from certain states do not engage in crimes as those of other areas. In real sense, such an inference is biased. This alludes to how statistics can be misused or misinterpreted (Campbell, 1974). Response to part 1A Indeed, there are various issues that govern the dynamics of crime; hence, the statistics. One of the points that can be acknowledges is that different areas, cities, counties and states have different factors that shape criminal activities. Areas may differ from others in terms of cultural factors, political uniqueness, crime intervention strategies and unemployment rates, among others. Comparing the crime rates between areas often constrain the way these factors should be captured effectively. In some cases, it might create the allowance for statistics to be abused by authorities and other parties to advance their gains at the expense of others. For example, it can be used by some crime prevention authorities of some states to justify their effort, even when the comparison is hardly objective, as documented by Campbell (1974) on the misuse of statistics. PART II Response to part 2 Prejudice refers to a biased presentation of an event, subject or phenomenon. It is a treatment based on notions that are self or socially constructed, as opposed to the reality Gabbidon and Greene, 2005). For example, ideas will be considered to be prejudiced if they do not present the reality views Response to Part 3 Stereotypes are perceptions or notions that are labeled to certain groups of people but which are barely factual. For example, the notion that women are considered to be a weaker species compared to men is a stereotype (Gabbidon and Greene, 2005). Another example of stereotype is where youths are considered to be a group of people that cannot be trusted. Response to part 4 Discrimination is the treatment of people based on the criterion informed by bias and which can be considered to be hardly objective. It has been argued that it is also possible to discriminate with objectivity, in what is referred to as positive discrimination, while negative discrimination is that which is subjective. In the common contexts, discrimination is meant to be subjective. For example, certain group of people can be arrested because of their appearance (Gabbidon and Greene, 2005). Response to part 5 Racism is the treatment or presentation of people based on racial bias. For instance, racism would be said to occur if only Black offenders are targeted for arrests, excluding offenders of other races (Gabbidon and Greene, 2005). Thus, racism can be considered as an attribute of discrimination. Response to part 6 Sexism is the treatment or presentation of people based on their sexual status. For instance, sexism would be said to occur if only male offenders are targeted for arrests, excluding female offenders (Gabbidon and Greene, 2005). In this regard, this can also be considered as a form of discrimination. Response to part 7 In-group refers a description labeled on events or treatments that take place within elements with similar characteristics such as class, grade, race, age and sex, so on. For example, one would say rape cases are in-group when the offenders and the offended fall in the same social category, say race or age (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy and Flament, 1971). In the context of bias, in-group bias refers to the tendency of a person to favor the group in which he belongs, as the expense of others. For example, an in-group bias would be said to have occurred when a male police arrests a female offenders while leaving male offenders. In this regard, in-group bias can be considered as the as a simple concept but has significant impact on the lives of people, as well as the societies. Response to part 8 Out-group refers a description labeled on events or treatments that take place beyond elements with similar characteristics such as class, grade, race, age and sex, so on. For example, one would say rape cases are out-group when the offenders and the offended fall in the different social categories, say race or age (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy and Flament, 1971). In the context of bias, out-group bias refers to the tendency of favoring another group to which one does not belong to. A basic example of out-group bias in the enforcement system is where a male police officer deliberately arrests male offenders and leaves the female offenders. Out-group bias are common occurrences within the population. Response to part 9 Conformity refers to the capability for a subject, event or phenomenon to be in line with the rules. For example, criminal statistics would be said to be in conformity with the rest if they resemble the standard statistics. In the case of sexual orientation, the transgender groups may be described as being out of conformity because they do not fit into the characteristics of the two biological sexes (Gabbidon and Greene, 2005). Response to Part 10 Institutional support is the justification or cover offered by institution on certain perspectives or insights. There is a close relationship between institution support and institutionalization terms. For instance, one could say racial discrimination has institutional support/ institutionalized because there are certain racial discrimination practices that have been tolerated (Gabbidon and Greene, 2005). Response to Part 11 Social categorization is the classification of people based on the social characteristics such as race, age, gender, ethnic group, race and sexual orientation status, so on. Indeed, these forms of classification are common in practice (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy and Flament 1971). For example, for statistical purposes, groups can be categorized as male or female, depending on gender, or White or Black, depending on the racial categories. In some cases, these could be meant for objective purpose, but there are cases where this could be for subjective purposes. Response to part 12 Institutional prejudice is a biased treatment advanced by the large groups of people, organizations, departments or societies, as a whole, while personal prejudice is that advanced by individuals. This can be clearly brought based on an example such as the following. A crime prevention department may be prejudiced in their view that a group of male offenders are to blame for a series of crimes occurring in the city, in what can be considered as an institutional bias. On the other hand, a person may hold prejudiced notion that male offenders are the main culprits, representing a personal bias. Response to 13 Stereotypes have far reaching implication on the memories, as well as perceptions of people towards events. What prejudice does is to make the memories and perceptions biased in a way that impairs judgment. Stereotypes always affect the way in which information is perceived, interpreted and even stored in the memory. In one way, these are best explained based on the example from psychology of the eye-witnesses (Shriver, Young, Hugenberg, Bernstein, & Lanter, 2008), as follows Mr. X and Mr. Y. Mr. X is Black while Mr. Y is White. Both share the same neighborhood. Mr. Y holds the stereotypes that the Blacks cannot be trusted. One day, Mr. Y spots a burglar escape from his house from a distance. The burglar was white, but could not effectively note these because the distance wouldn’t allow. Information in the mind is retrieved and Mr. Y quickly attributes that it must have been Mr. X because he is the only Black he knows within the neighborhood. Mr. Y proceeds to report to the police about the incident but ends up gives a burglar description to match Mr. X’s description. In this case, since Mr. Y is prejudiced, the information perception is wrong, just as the judgment. The eventual information that is stored is also biased, just as the retrieval. Response to part 14 There are various stereotypes that are presented in the training guide. The common stereotypes are those on the basis on race, gender, sexual orientation and religiosity and disability (US Department of Justice 2012). One example of stereotype is where the disabled are considered to be incapable of assuming certain roles. Response to part 15 A stereotype is identified based on knowledge and reality and this is what sets it apart from the accurate descriptions. Accurate descriptions are informed by valid knowledge or truth while stereotypes are simply informed by the socially constructed view, which hardly reflects the reality (Tajfel, Billig, Bundy and Flament 1971). It is worth noting that stereotype is one of the components of attitudes, which is often associated with other attitudes such as discrimination and prejudice. However, psychologists have come out clearly in differentiating these attitude elements, as reflected Hilton and Hippel (1996). Here, stereotypes have been considered as a component of cognition, while prejudice is a component of affection while discrimination is a component of behavior. Based on these, it can be inferred that stereotypes are a reflection of the beliefs and expectations about certain group members and which are utilized in judging others Response to part 16 The principles of psychological motivation underlying prejudice rest upon the self-regulation and social accommodation. Thus, prejudice can be triggered in two ways. In one way, as far as self regulation is concerned, people develop prejudice based on their experiences with events, which are then generalized. For instance, if the first yellow pen does not work, the second one does not work and similarly the third one, the prejudice that all yellow pens are never effective is established. Moreover, there are also cases of self regulation where a person may be prejudiced because of resembling a foe. As far as social accommodation is concerned, a person develops prejudiced as a result of dominant insights that have already been socially constructed. Thus, one adopts the prejudice by accommodating the socially constructed insights. For instance, the view that women are weaker than men is socially constructed and is often perpetuated on the basis of social accommodation. PART III Response to part 17 Based on the information obtained in other sections, there is the reason to believe that some arrests are often carried out in line on the basis ethnic and racial discriminations. It could be argued that it is human nature to be characterized with bias and prejudice. It then follows that prejudice can be in other cases considered to be inevitable, especially where there is lack of information to facilitate the deconstruction process. What exacerbates the chances that arrests are based on prejudice is the fact that they are often dependent upon the discretion of the enforcement officers. Indeed, considering that there are no well-rounded laws to govern all possible scenarios that police encounter when in the field, officers have certain flexibility, in what is referred to as police discretion (Goldstein, 1977). Thus, police discretion is the judgment that police assume while in the field. This could include letting someone go after a warning, or arraigning someone to court over certain minor offences because of certain underlying factors. The discretion gives the allowance for the enforcement officers to exercise bias. Besides, it is the only account that can be given for the disproportionate minority contact. Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) refers to the disproportionate minority youth number who happen to had a direct encounter with juvenile justice system. For example, as observed by Darnell, Barry, Kimberley and Sandra (2003), until 2005, the Minority youth accounted for about 78 percent of the total number of youth detained in Youth Development Centers across all states. Moreover, it has been cited that certain groups, such as the Blacks, have been overrepresented in incarceration centers (David, Terence, Kelly & Peter, 2007). Response to 18 There are ways in which cultural diversity have an impact on crime commitment. The theoretical rationale is that there are certain cultures that tend to justify behaviors that are considered to be criminal in the rest. In this regard, culture simply defines a framework of ideals that should apply to the subjects. This view is effectively covered by the subculture violence theory, as advanced by Franco Ferracuti and Marvin Wolfgang that there are certain groups in which certain threatening behaviors are tolerated and which are opposed by others (Gabbidon & Greene, 2005). They argue that the differences in crime commitment between the white and the Blacks are as a result of subculture existence. Conclusion In conclusion, this response paper has acknowledged that racial and criminal profiling is one of the pertinent topics, as far as criminal justice is concerned. Cautionary notices regarding the use of criminal data aimed at discouraging the misuse of statistics. The common types of stereotypes are those committed on the basis of race, age, gender, ethnic group, race and sexual orientation status. There is substantial evidence that arrests are still being carried out on the basis of racial bias. Subsequently, cultural factors have an impact on crime commitment References Campbell, S. (1974), Flaws and Fallacies in Statistical Thinking; Prentice Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ Darnell, H., Barry, F., Kimberley, K. & Sandra, G. (2003). Disproportionate Minority Confinement: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Differences in Assessment of Juvenile Culpability. Retrieved from http://www.adjj.org/downloads/3280Microsoft%20PowerPoint%20-DMC.pdf David, H., Terence, T., Kelly, K. & Peter, L. (2007). Disproportionate Minority Contact in Juvenile Justice Systems: A Study of Differential Minority Arrests/ Referral to Courts in Three Cities Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/219743.pdf Gabbidon, S. and Greene, H. (2005). Race, Crime and Justice: A Reader. New York: Routledge Gabbidon, S. & Greene, H. (2013). Race and Crime. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Goldstein, H. (1977). Structuring and Categorizing Discretion. Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company. Hilton, J. & Hippel,W (1996). "Stereotypes". Annual Review of Psychology 47 (1): 237–271. Shriver, E. Young, S., Hugenberg, K., Bernstein, M. & Lanter, J. (2008). Class, race, and the face: Social context modulates the cross-race effect in face recognition. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(2): 260-274 US Department of Justice. (2012). Hate Crime Data Collection Guidelines and Training Manual: Version 1.0, 12/19/2012. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/data-collection-manual Tajfel, M. Billig, P. Bundy and C. Flament (1971). "Social categorization and intergroup behaviour". European Journal of Social Psychology 1 (2): 149–178. Read More