Profiles in Injustice: Why Racial Profiling Cannot Work

By David A. Harris

Book Overview

Racial profiling--as practiced by police officers, highway troopers, and customs officials--is one of America's most explosive public issues. But even as protest against the practice has swelled, police forces and others across the country continue to argue that profiling is an effective crime-fighting tool. In Profiles in Injustice, now in paperback, David Harris--described by the Seattle Times as "America's leading authority on racial profiling"--dismantles those arguments, drawing on a wealth of newly available statistics to show convincingly that profiling is not only morally and legally wrong, but also startlingly ineffectual at preventing crime or apprehending criminals.

A new chapter considers how the events of September 11 have recast the racial profiling issue, tipping public opinion in favor of the policy as a tool in fighting terrorism.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565848187
• ISBN13: 9781565848184
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Accurate, Eloquent, Searching Look at a U.S. Stain of Shame

This masterpiece of legal scholarship, clearly and eloquently written for the general public (plus police officers, politicians, and lawyers) lays searingly bare the United States's collective shame of the evil practice of racial profiling and stereotyping. The first 3 of the 9 chapters lay the groundwork of the author's thesis via extensive anecdotal evidence, thoroughly supported by direct quotations and direct observations, many of them from police officers as well as innocent victims. Chapter 4 provides a convincing and well-reasoned [I'm a professional statistician] statistical validation of the author's thesis, plus proof that racial profiling actually decreases probabilities of intercepting criminals. Chapter 5 exposes the hidden but corrosive costs of racial profiling, such as disunity among Americans and the cancer of chronic distrust of police and courts. Chapter 6 extends the discussion beyond African-American victims to East Asian, Hispanic, and Near-Eastern victims. The last three chapters provide the encouragement of a road to improvement, including examples of municipalities and police departments already following that road.Throughout, the author's prose is objective, quietly restrained, and superbly organized and enunciated.