Racial Profiling

Racial Profiling Review

Author (s

Dr . Amy Farrell (Associate Director , Institute on Race and Justice Dean Jack McDevitt (Director , Institute on Race and Justice , Lisa Bailey (Assistant Director of Community Outreach , Institute on Race and Justice , Carsten Andresen (Research Associate , Center for Criminal Justice Policy Research , Erica Pierce (Research Associate , Center for Criminal Justice Policy Research

Title : Massachusetts Racial and Gender Profiling Final Report

Publication Date : May 4 , 2004

Publisher : Northeaster University - Institute in Race and Justice

Characteristics of Jurisdiction (s ) Covered

The report being reviewed here is

one conducted in to identify gender and race based discrimination in the community . The focus of the report is the police and law enforcement community which is responsible for managing the traffic flows and monitoring security and control for the traffic . The municipal agencies pertaining to traffic police and traffic regulators are focused . The discrepancy that is being targeted is the number of citations received by white people as compared to non white people and the number of searches non white people have to suffer as compared to the white people when stopped by a member of the municipal agency i .e , a traffic policemen or traffic regulating officers . As a result the report provides an evaluation of the municipal agency pertaining to the extent of racial prejudice and discrimination present in the agency

[Theme of the report]

Impetus for the Report (court mandate , local pressure , etc

The report was directed to be drawn up by the new amendment to legislature pertaining to the chapter 228 of the Acts of 2000 . The aim of the report was to identify and provide to the Secretary of Public Safety a listing of state police units or municipalities that appear to have engaged in racial or gender profiling (`Massachusetts Racial and Gender Profiling Final Report , 2004 ) The purpose of the study was to determine whether the traffic police department tends to target searches and suspicion based on the race , gender or ethnicity of the drivers in the motor vehicle . The discrimination of race and gender by the traffic regulation employees is targeted through this research in to make amendments to their method of operation and suspicion detection for reducing racial discrimination in the region

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Types of Data Collected (observations , official records , etc

The data collected for the purpose of this report pertains to the official records available through the traffic police and regulation authorities . This information gathers data on the persons stopped on traffic lights by the officers , the arrests made for misdemeanor or non compliance with traffic regulations as well as the names and information pertaining to those individuals who were stopped and searched by the officers . Using data on traffic citations and written warnings collected by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles , this study examines the existence of racial and gender disparities in approximately 1 .6 million traffic citations issued between April 1 , 2001 and June 30 2003 . The citations analyzed in this report were received from the Massachusetts...