Prior literature on racial profiling indicates that African Americans have been mistreated, harassed, and discriminated against by law enforcement because of this controversial policing strategy. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to bridge the gap in knowledge by analyzing the impact of racial profiling on African American adults and discover whether it contributed to unintentional violence in racial and ethnic minority communities. The theoretical framework for this research study was critical race theory. The research question for this study was: How does racial profiling impact African Americans' perception of the police? This phenomenological research study used purposeful sampling to locate 7 African American participants that were interviewed regarding their lived experience with racial profiling. The data collected from the interviews were organized, sorted, and coded to reveal patterns and themes. The findings revealed that the participants believed that they were discriminated against, harassed, treated like criminals, and profiled by the police because of the color of their skin without just cause. Themes that were identified from the data collected and analyzed revealed that the perceptions of the police contributed to African Americans resentment of the police, which frequently results in violence and loss of human life. The implications for positive social change for this study includes the potential redesign of policing and the criminal justice system, the development of new crime fighting strategies that do not involve racial profiling, the creation of new federal and state laws prohibiting racial profiling, cultural awareness and cultural competency education for all police officers, and improved relationships between police and the African American community.

Racial profiling: Personal experiences that people of color face in Sweden  The purpose of this study is to explore the personal experiences of racial profiling that people of color face in Sweden. Racial profiling is a social issue in the world today and a much-disputed subject in the Swedish society. The study was conducted with qualitative interviews with four people of color in Sweden. The intersectionality perspective was used as an analytical tool to analyze the experiences people of color face with the help of social constructionism theory. The results showed that all four interviewees have experienced racial profiling in different settings in their lives. In addition, the study showed that the interviewees’ experiences of racial profiling differed depending on the interviewees’ identity attributes such as gender, race, and their religious affiliation affecting their vulnerability and experiences of racial profiling. The findings also show that the four informants have experienced and are vulnerable to everyday racism in Sweden due to the existing prejudices in the Swedish society.

Positive community-police relations, which are based on mutual trust, are key to equitable and just policing. Use of force that is perceived as unfair and biased can quickly undermine relations between the police and the public. In an attempt to understand what psychological factors contribute to police use of force decisions and potentially racially biased use of force application, this study proposed masculinity threat as an important psychological factor that influences police behavior. Masculinity threat occurs when a man's status as a man is threatened, and threats to masculinity are often associated with increased aggression and dominance as a way of restoring the threatened status. Policing is a male-dominated field, and because most victims of officer use of force are men, the current research examines how threats to male police officers' masculinity, including verbal and physical manifestations of threat, contribute to officer force against civilians. Past research has explored how high levels of trait masculinity threat (as measured by the Male Gender Role Stress scale; Goff, Martin, & Gamson-Smiedt, 2012) in police officers is associated with higher levels of force against racial minority suspects, however, no such research has examined state level masculinity threat (e.g., in the moment threats) as they occur in real world police-suspect interactions. Focusing on understanding the associations between use of force and state level masculinity threat, it was predicted that officers who have their masculinity explicitly and publicly threatened by male suspects will use more force against suspects compared to interactions where no such masculinity threat has occurred. It was also predicted that minority suspects who threaten officers' masculinity will receive more force than White suspects. To test these hypotheses, reporting officers' (RO) narratives of use of force interactions (excluding lethal force) from a large police department on the West Coast were coded and analyzed. Contrary to the hypotheses, results suggest that masculinity threat within an officer-suspect interaction may relate to lower levels of average officer force and higher number of sequences (e.g., back and forth exchanges) between suspect and officer. While results are in the opposite direction of the hypotheses, they provide new information regarding the association between personal threats to officer manhood and their subsequent actions. Specifically, results suggest that masculinity threat has a more complicated relationship with force than previously predicted and future research would do well to investigate a potential interaction effect of trait level and state level masculinity on police use of force decisions. Several other areas of further research are outlined, such as the need to examine other suspect-level and officer-level variables such as age and tenure. Overall, the results of this study suggest the need for continued clarifying research.

This study examined how mainstream and black press newspapers framed the phenomena of "racial profiling" three years before and three years after the September 11 terrorist attacks. It looked particularly at frames, ethnic groups, source selection and article emphasis. Results indicate that even in the face of a tragedy, black press reporters did not waiver in their position and continued to cover issues from a "black perspective." On the other hand, mainstream newspapers altered their coverage during the high-stress period and began to portray racial profiling as an anti-Arab/terrorist tactic that is acceptable in some cases. This study helps answer the question of whether black press newspapers are necessary in today's society. The answer is yes. They still carry a unique viewpoint. Until the gap that divides African American and other readers ceases to exist, the black press will remain an important staple in the black community. / text

Background: Historically, US immigration policy, including border enforcement, has served to define national belonging and through this process, has constructed particular groups as undesirable or threatening to the nation. Such political-economic strategies contribute to oppression through gender, ethnic, and class discrimination and economic and political exclusion. This dissertation is based on three studies that collectivity explored these issues as structural determinants of health (SDH) and forms of structural and everyday violence. Objectives: These studies aimed to (1) examine the relations between immigration related mistreatment and practices of ethno-racial profiling by immigration officials on health of Mexican immigrants of the Arizona border (2) contextualize the structural and everyday violence of such institutional practices through mistreatment narratives and (3) evaluate the impact of an intensive Border Health Service Learning Institute (BHSLI) on public health students' ability to locate such forms of violence and identify the role of public health advocacy. Methods: Study one and two are a secondary analysis of quantitative and qualitative data drawn from a random household sample of 299 Mexican-origin farmworkers. Study three is a qualitative analysis of 25 BHSLI student reflection journals from 2010-2012. Results: Farmworkers were US permanent residents and citizens, employed in US agriculture for 20 years. Approximately 25% reported immigration related mistreatment, more than 50% were personally victimized and 75% of mistreatment episodes occurred in a community location while residents engaged in routine activities. Immigration mistreatment was associated with a 2.3-increased risk for stress in adjusted models (OR 2.3, CI 1.2, 4.1). After a week at the US-Mexico border, BHSLI students articulated aspects of immigration and economic policy impacting health. Students framed economic and immigration policies as health policy and found the role of public health to convene stakeholders toward multi-institutional policy solutions. Conclusion: Immigration related mistreatment and ethno-racial profiling are historically embedded at institutional and individual levels and reproduce inequality overtime. Such institutional practices of discrimination are SDH and forms of structural and everyday violence. Academic public health programs, engaged in service learning strengthen students' abilities to learn and act on such SDH and contribute to campus-community engagement on related ethno-racial health disparities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 314-324). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--North Carolina State University. / Vita. Originally issued in electronic format. UMI number: 3098991. Includes bibliographical references (p. 204-217). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Human Security and Police Brutality via the Lens of Critical Race Theory Leah Gideon Kuttu 47472109 'Equality' and 'dignity of persons' are common language in the legal lingo on rights and freedoms of all men. However there seems to exist, a large magnitude in discrepancy with the actuality of these ideals in the way that all people are treated, particularly in this work, in the American society. The death of George Floyd was momentous in refocusing light on the issue of police brutality and seemingly, institutionalized racism in America. That one post showing how Floyd was killed by Police, showed just how much Black America was treated in contrast to the stipulated rights for all persons noted in America's legal apparatus. There began for international security a marked turning point in the pivot with the human being- as opposed to the state- becoming the core object for security and protection. This new turn is pointed to the 1990s in the aftermath of the Cold war. Human-centric occupations in security connote that threats to international security begin with the individual and so the individual must first be prioritized when assessing threats to security in the state and the international system. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR, 1948) is the foremost pillar on which human security is...

For years, urban communities and specific ethnic groups within the US (mostly Blacks and Hispanics) have been targeted for racial profiling by our local police. Since the 1990’s, the outcry for justice by our Black and Hispanic communities increased the interests to find ways to address and fight against the act of racial profiling. This phenomenological study used a qualitative approach to collect information and gain the understanding and lived experiences of Black males between the ages of 20 – 49 who experienced racial profiling during routine traffic stops. Twelve Black Males between the ages of 20 to 49 were interviewed for the research study. Everyone was interviewed separately to gather experiences and meanings from their own points of view. In addition, 25 Black males within the same age group participated in a 1 hour focus group discussion. The information gathered from the interviews and focus group sessions were compiled into a Microsoft word transcript and reviewed and analyzed by the researcher to form seven themes. In order to come up with key findings, I isolated similar responses from the experiences shared by the research participants during the interviews and focus group session. In isolating some of the key responses revealed, I dissected racial profiling from a shared experience point of view based on common approaches practiced by law enforcement officers. The research study will contribute to field on conflict resolution through the voices of those who experienced racial profiling, and finding ways to encourage mediation through projecting the underlying concerns or issues to community leaders, government officials, concerned groups, and law enforcement agencies.

This thesis examined police practices of the North Carolina Highway Patrol concerning the occurrence of racial profiling. The sample data consisted of motorists stopped in North Carolina by the Highway Patrol between January 1, 2000 and July 31, 2000 (N = 332, 861). The findings suggested that race was a likely factor in pretextual stops. The results also indicate that racial profiling was occurring more in the western region than the eastern region of North Carolina. Theoretical reasons are offered in support of these findings.