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Non-legal Journals

    • Matthew Petrocelli, Alex Piquero, Michael Smith, Conflict theory and racial profiling: An empirical analysis of police traffic stop data, 31, Journal of Criminal Justice (2003)

Matthew Petrocelli wrote this interdisciplinary article which was published in 2003. Mr. Petrocelli is an associate professor of criminal justice at Southern Illinois University. He holds a Ph.D in sociology and criminal studies. The article was published in volume 31 of the Journal of Criminal Justice. The article examines a compilation of data collected over a two-year period by a Virginia Police Department. The data collection was an effort to study the stop, search, and arrest practices that were employed according to the racial and socioeconomic factors of the driver of the vehicle. The article discusses the conflict theory that dominant groups will use their resources including the law and its mechanisms to minimize threats from minority groups whom they have labeled dangerous. The article postulates that culturally dissimilar groups are viewed as threats and that this may be a reason for police officers to disproportionately stop minority drivers. The article did include a detailed bibliography.

    • Michael A. Ikner, Janice Ahmad, Alejandro Del Carmen, Vehicle Cues and Racial Profiling: Police Officers’ Perceptions of Vehicles and Drivers, 2, The Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice (2005)

Michael Ikner wrote this interdisciplinary article that was published in 2005. The article was published in volume 2 of the Southwest Journal of Criminal Justice. The article centers on a study conducted at a North Texas police department. The study examined police officers’ perceptions of vehicle driver characteristics and the likelihood of individual officers to be involved in racial profiling based on the type of vehicle. The article examines police officers’ decisions to make traffic stops based on associating a particular type of vehicle with a specific racial group. The article asserts that the media has created a drug courier profile as part of the war on drugs phenomena. Part of this profile is the type of vehicle that the drug courier drives. Police officers, like the rest of us, are susceptible to developing preconceived notions. Ikner asserts that police officers have developed an idea of what a drug dealer should look like, act like and drive. Police officers then use this idea to seek out who potential suspects instead of relying on substantive probable cause which is required by law. The results of the study did not seem to support Ikner’s assertion. Ninety percent of the officers tested associated a white driver with the vehicle shown to him or her. This may have been a result of the officers’ suspicion of the test or overcompensation by the officers. The test has value and will be employed by other police departments in the future to try to curb the practice of racial profiling that unquestionably exists around the country.