Law - Criminal Profiling Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Law - Criminal Profiling - Research Paper Example Indeed, it has been increasingly common in light of the perceived threats to the population by Islamic terrorists. Thus, in airplanes, Islamic-looking individuals are subjected to inspections and interviews of an intensity that white people are not normally subjected to. The increasing numbers of crime, and the associations by people that these crimes emanate from race-based communities such as Hispanic communities, are also responsible for the growing trend towards racial profiling. While racial profiling is never really legislated as a policy in its explicit sense, the ever-widening range of methods that a law enforcement officer are allowed to employ allow the use of racial profiling as a legitimate strategy. We now proceed to discussing the costs against the benefits of racial profiling. Those who support racial profiling believe that a utilitarian approach must be taken. The argument is that because it is true that there are crimes which certain racial groups are more predispose d to committing than other racial groups, â€Å"special efforts at crime reduction directed at members of such groups are justified, if not required.† (Risse and Zeckhauser, 2004). ... In contrast, those who are opposed to racial profiling dispute the position that some races have a greater tendency to commit some crimes than others. Indeed, in a study conducted, the officers’ behaviour of racial profiling is not supported by any showing that the criminal acts in the predominantly white community were committed by African Americans (Meehan and Ponder, 2002). Of course, the deeper objection to racial profiling is that it does â€Å"curtail the enjoyment of fundamental human rights by millions of people who belong to racial and ethnic minorities.† (American Civil Liberties Union and Rights Working Group, 2009). The jurisprudence has also tended to support racial profiling. It has been held, for example, that when testing the constitutionality of a vehicle stop, the motivations of a police officer making the stop (e.g., if the motivations were driven by racial bias) are immaterial, the only question is whether or not the officer had cause to effect the s top. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996). The impact on this on racial profiling is very much evident – it basically gives police officers unfettered rights to make stops, even if it targets specific racial or ethnic minorities. In the end, instead of educating the police forces to be race-blind, it condones discrimination on the basis of racial and ethnic differences. The role of geography in profiling predatory criminals Geography plays a major role in the profiling of criminals. Some parts of the world have been stereotyped as providing concentrated numbers of individuals engaged in similar crimes. For example, Latin America is known as a drug cartel haven. Many Americans assume that illicit drugs in the United

Impact of World War II on the United States Essay

Impact of World War II on the United States - Essay Example Prior to the war, the New Deal was not able to overcome the stagnant state of the US economy despite the concerted efforts of the Roosevelt government. The unemployment rate remained steadily above 14 percent despite having considerably fallen since the darkest years of the depression. A consideration of a more penetrative government fiscal intervention gave way to speculations about real economic recovery in which it was posited that the recovery would become elusive if given to the care of the private sector (Vatter 1985, p. 7). Such recovery required much more Keynesian doses for the New Deal to finally affect full employment (Vatter 1985, p.11). Political impacts include several pursuits that aimed to repair a damaged economy during the New Deal era and the war itself. A political, psychological, and economic shift was a product of the New Deal and World War II in the United States. These concerns troubled the American government during the war years and immediately afterward: big government, the economy, and communism at home and abroad. It was inferred that the bourgeoning bureaucracy that ensued in the United States during the WWII was one characterized by the mounting of commissions, agencies, and administrations, aiming to serve the legal and political necessities of the period. Examples of these are the Foreign Economic Administration, Maritime Commissions and the War Shipping Administration, Selective Service System, US Employment Service, War Manpower Commission, War Labor Board, and War Food Administration (Vatter 1985, p. 87). Each of these had their on designated purposes in which central is the organizing and carrying out of American war-time economic production and output. All of these bureaucratic organizations formed a government front aiming to push through all forms of opposition in the interest of allied victory. The War Production Board (WPB) was established in order to distribute strategic materials as well as suspend the production of consumer products. The WMC attempted to balance the appropriat e distribution of men and women in military, industry, and agriculture during the war (Maddox 1992, p. 193). There was no questioning that the United States placed itself in a hegemonic position as a world power after the war, which may be referred to as one of its political impacts. Likewise, America's preoccupation with the promotion of democracy is essentially an idealist stance that emerged from the moralism and exceptionalism of the America political tradition (Ikenberry 2000, p. 103). This tradition is manifested through actual foreign policy, often carried out at the expense of more sober American international interests (Ikenberry 2000, p. 103). It is for the pursuit of making foreign policy commitments more acceptable to American public that the American democratic stance becomes a minor distraction. The American promotion of democracy after World War II reflects a pragmatic and evolving understanding of creating a stable political order in the international arena, which was later called "an American liberal grand strategy"