Racial Profiling

Plot

Racial profiling involves law enforcement actions based on race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on the criminal behavior of an individual. In practice, it leads police to stop and inspect selected people passing through public places— passengers on airplanes, drivers on highways, pedestrians in urban areas, visitors crossing national borders—because they fit a statistical profile based on group membership. Is membership in a group ever a sufficient reason for special investigation, or do such actions always violate civil liberties? Is racial profiling effective in crime prevention? Racial Profiling addresses these and other related questions and explores the highly charged controversies that they reflect.