SOC 3750 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Robert Wilkins, Maryland State Police, Racial Profiling

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 3750
• Professor: Patrick Parnaby

Document Summary

Lecture 13 (19/10/16) policing and race: racial profiling. **research question thesis answers questions: why or how something is happening, what as a component why or how as a follow up, thesis should come from research question . don"t start with a thesis . How many of you believe officers racially profile: about 2/3s of class. What do you think causes racial profiling: history, learning, cultural stereotypes. Profiling takes place during surveillance stage increased incarceration of minorities is not racial profiling, it may be a result of racial profiling. Officers uses race (not behaviour) as grounds for suspicion/surveillance. Encounters that are police initiated (proactive: excludes calls for service, stops where suspect matches description, etc. Racial profiling discovered in 1993 term itself, not the behaviour: robert wilkins and maryland state police term used in his defence. Extensive research by police and academics followed (mid 1990s through 2000s) Under pressure, us police departments began collecting traffic stop data (including race)