Racial profiling and the courts: An empirical analysis of federal litigation, 1991 to 2006

This article examines 135 federal-level racial profiling cases. Based on a review of these cases, the research reveals that such cases are on the decline. Moreover, most of the persons alleging they were racially profiled were Black and Hispanic. More than half of the persons making racial profiling allegations were caught engaging in criminal activity during the incident that instigated the legal suit. In addition, most of the incidents involved multiple male officers, who were employed by local police departments. The research also found that persons making racial profiling allegations win in less than a third of the cases. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these results.