Sociology research Paper and Questions - Essay Example

rime, this study proposes to examine whether increasing crime can in fact be attributed to race, or whether there may be other factors that could explain the explosion in crime. People belonging to ethnic minorities had long complained of racial profiling by law enforcement personnel, which is often the cause of feelings of resentment, hurt and an increasing loss of trust in the police among members of racial minorities. But Kleinig and Risse (2007) have discussed racial profiling in the context of the September 11, attacks, and detailed the results of a study that appeared to justify the evils of racial profiling as an efficient law enforcement strategy.

The reason was because it was based upon the underlying belief that members of certain groups appear to possess a greater tendency to commit crimes and police can curb crime by adopting harsher measures against members of such minority groups. Based upon the findings of this study, an argument is offered that racial profiling is attributable to pre existing racism, hence profiling only expresses that racism rather than perpetuating it. Another argument offered is that the benefits of profiling and benefits provided by Government to the minorities far outweigh the harmful effects.

Huff (2007) reports on an extensive ethnographic study that was carried out among police officers to examine their attitudes towards gang related crimes, their reasons for wanting to be assigned to units fighting against gang related crimes and how gang units are managed. Although this was an exhaustive study utilizing multiple data sources, it was limited by the selection of four primarily southwestern cities with a higher incidence of Hispanics. The study found that officers feel more independent while functioning in gang units but there was also clear evidence of racial profiling against the minorities.

Graham and Lowery (2007) examined the problem of racial profiling from another perspective – the working of the criminal justice