Racial Profiling

Abstract Racial profiling of individuals in US society has occurred since the inception of modern policing, and has been institutionalized as a systemic aspect of police culture. Allegations of racial profiling by law enforcement personnel need to be scientifically investigated. This entry delineates some of the methodological issues and challenges involved in scientifically investigating claims of racial profiling, including (often) unreliable and inaccurate police data, determining the types of data most appropriate for analysis, the use of quantitative and qualitative analyses, the determination of appropriate benchmarks against which police behavior can be evaluated, and the possible causes of racial disparities in the data. Comprehensive studies of racial profiling should take these methodological issues and challenges into account, so as to produce a more complete representation of the racial dynamics that occur during police‐citizen interactions.