Thursday, January 26, 2012

Definitions and Legal Terms



Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King Jr., 1963


In 2000, California Senate Bill 1102 amended Penal Code Section 13519.4 9(d) and defined racial profiling as "the practice of detaining a suspect based on a broad set of criteria which casts suspicion on an entire class of people without any individualized suspicion of the particular person being stopped."



  • Profiling: Legal Definition - "The consideration of race, ethnicity, or national origin by an officer of the law in deciding when and how to intervene in an enforcement capacity."


  • Discrimination: The treatment or action taken toward or against a person of a certain group that is taken in consideration based on class or category.


  • Criminal Profiling: Legal practice based on psychological characteristics; articulable behaviors or characteristics that can be analyzed and evaluated. Profiling behavior is more effective than profiling race.