Writing a Racial Profiling Research Paper

Writing a Racial Profiling Research Paper

Depending on where you grew up, racial profiling may be something that you experienced on a regular basis. It could also be a something of which you are completely unaware. Racial profiling is something that happens when members of racial minorities are targeted by law enforcement and other similar agencies simply due to their race, or the racial group that they appear to belong to. Racial profiling is something that is technically illegal in places, but it still happens. This may be changing slowly, but it is still a hot topic, and this explains why the racial profiling essay is currently a very timely and relevant writing assignment. Here are a few tips that can help you write a racial profiling research paper.

Track Down Some Good Resources

It does not matter which side of this issue that you choose to take. It just matters that you wisely select resources on and offline that are fair and objective. This is a subject that causes people to become pretty emotional, and there is a lot of divisive information that is not always accurate. So, before you decide that a source is worthwhile, do a bit of fact checking. Know who the person or entity behind the source is. Then, find out if that person or group has any kind of agenda that would cause them to be less than honest in their reporting. One way to make sure that your sources ‘pass the smell test’ is to focus on academic studies and statistics. If you do that, and then find some anecdotal evidence that also supports your thesis, you will have a great basis for your research paper.

Choose a Focal Point

Is your paper going to focus on racial profiling in law enforcement? If so, will you focus on the practice of racial profiling in street level policing, vice and drug enforcement, the court system, or in the corrections side of law enforcement. Will your focus be on the damage it does to police relationships with community members, or the damage that is done to minority populations who have many young men entering the criminal justice system at a young age, often for very minor crimes. Perhaps you will focus on something outside of criminal justice. You could, for example, write your paper on racial profiling in employment. There have been stories recently where people with very ethnic sounding names were receiving  no feedback on their resumes, but then received many callbacks after submitting their resumes using more ‘Anglo’ sounding.

Stay Organized

Once you have chosen a focal point, and tracked down some great resources, you are ready to take notes. Your goal here should be to stay as organized as possible. If you have problems with keeping paper notes organized, it may be a good idea to try a note taking app such as EverNote. This will allow you to enter notes with your device and then search them later when you are ready to write your research paper.