Denver Post
opinion
Rosen: Profiling isn’t racist

By Mike Rosen
Posted: 06/17/2010

With all the contrived outrage from foaming-at- the-mouth activists, the perfectly rational and justifiable practice of “profiling” is getting an undeserved bad name. This is partially explained by a fundamental misunderstanding of the term. Profiling is a method of identifying a set of characteristics that belong to persons who engage in a certain type of behavior.

FBI profiling applies the science of forensic psychology to analyze crime cases for clues that lead to the identity of perpetrators. In the 1991 movie “The Silence of the Lambs,” Hannibal Lecter — an imprisoned psychologist and cannibalistic serial killer — bargains for special treatment in exchange for assisting FBI agent Clarice Starling in profiling another serial killer on the loose.

The term is also imprecisely used as a substitute for little more than a “description.” If you’ve been given the description of a lost Great Dane, you won’t mistake it for a toy poodle. If eyewitnesses to a murder describe the killer as a 6-foot-8, 300-pound white male, the police will broadcast that description to aid in his arrest. If that fits you, you might be stopped by a cop, while a 5-foot-1, 100-pound Asian woman won’t be bothered. Race is merely one of many relevant characteristics included for purposes of identification. It’s not “racist” to do so….

MORE HERE