1st Edition

Racial Profiling They Stopped Me Because I'm ------------!

By Michael L. Birzer Copyright 2013
242 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

241 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

241 Pages
by Routledge

Many racial minority communities claim profiling occurs frequently in their neighborhoods. Police authorities, for the most part, deny that they engage in racially biased police tactics. A handful of books have been published on the topic, but they tend to offer only anecdotal reports offering little reliable insight. Few use a qualitative methodological lens to provide the context of how... Read more

Stylin’ n’ Profilin’. Purpose of the Book. The Cambridge Incident. Scope of the Problem. Defining Racial Profiling. Experience Is Powerful. Putting Racial Profiling into Context. . A History of Disparate Treatment. The War on Drugs. What about Congress, Data Collection, and the Court? Congressional Mandates. Police Stop Data. Data Collection Methods. Did the Supreme Court Sanction Racial Profiling? Would Have, Could Have, Should Have. Phenomenology as Method in Racial Profiling Research. Framing the Study. Alternative Epistemology. The Paradigm Divide. Qualitative Research. Phenomenology. Selecting Participants. Treatment of Data. Experiencing Racial Profiling. Constructing the Stop. Coercion and Appearance. Unifying Experience. Berry’s Story. Trusting the Data. Validity. Reliability. Trustworthiness. Interview Memo. Striking Revelations. Global Conclusions. Striking Revelations. Where Do We Go From Here? Implications for Police Practice. Implications for Citizens. Implications for Research. The White Male Researcher. Index.



Biography

Michael L. Birzer is the Director of the School of Community Affairs and a professor of criminal justice at Wichita State University. He was recently named a Leadership Fellow at his university. Professor Birzer’s research interests include the intersection of race and the criminal justice system, police behavior and policy, and criminal justice training and education strategies. He is the author or co-author of eight books in such areas as policing, private security, and criminology. Prior to academia, he served more than 18 years with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department in Wichita where he worked in a wide variety of patrol, investigative, supervisory, and management positions.