Should racial and ethnic profiling techniques be used in the war against terrorism?

Should racial and ethnic profiling techniques be used in the war against terrorism?

Discussion of the Issue

Racial and ethnic profiling has risen in the context of war on terrorism with the bombing of the world trade centre. Racial and ethnic profiling increased in significance due to the bombing being conducted by a specific community. With the spate of bombings conducted by Muslims to a great extent, the Justice department used racial and ethnic profiling for successfully targeting criminals as well as awarding them punishment. Whenever, any immigrant lands in USA, he/she is subjected to various rigorous procedures in searching and other activities. The law enforcers of USA make use of racial and ethnic profiling to a great context while dealing with immigrants as it looks to target a specific community. In the context of racial and ethnic profiling, the law enforcers at USA target the different minorities and communities for their involvement in criminal activities. We will present both sides of the argument in the context of racial and ethnic profiling (Greene & Heilbrun, 2013).

Pros

Racial profiling is conducted by American authorities on a set of assumptions. They use forecasting and predictions as a tool for targeting the different communities on the basis of race and ethnicities. The basis for American authorities to resort to racial and ethnic profiling has been the fact that a majority of bombings in the context of America have been carried out by Muslims. Thus, the American authorities rely on the use of racial and ethnic profiling in the context of war on terrorism (Police Psychology, 2013). They are of the view that majority of criminal activities and bombings in the context of America have been carried out by Muslims and thus the criminal activities of future would also be shaped by Muslims participation. Racial profiling is used when law enforcement agencies base their investigations by targeting specific races or ethnicities. In order to select which individuals to interrogate, the American authorities base their decisions on targeting Muslims since they are of the perception that Muslims are the ones behind all criminal activities. It is not necessary that race or ethnic factors are the only considerations in the decision of interrogation. Rather it is shaped by a set of factors that represent racial and ethnic profiling (Bailes, 2004).

The proponents of racial profiling are of the view that Muslims as a race or ethnicity would be having greater chances of having a role in criminal involvement as they had been having a significant role in the past criminal activities. The supporters of racial profiling do not tend to rely on the factors of race and ethnicities but consider the process of racial profiling as the most efficient process of tackling crime fighting. They are of the view that effective crime fighting can only take place with a religious implementation of racial and ethnic profiling. Targeting terrorists through race or ethnicity results in significant pros ...