Kelly Welch
Associate Professor, Villanova University
Key Findings
- The current recognizability of the image of young Black men as criminals is the result of various representations of crime, including actual involvement in crime, portrayals in the media, and use of the racial hoax to mislead law enforcement and the public.
- These representations have solidified the stereotype of the young Black man as a criminal threat among the public in contemporary U.S. society, which fuels the practice of racial profiling by criminal justice officials.
- The prevalent typification of Blacks as criminals seems to justify law enforcement tactics that exploit race in criminal investigations.
- Only when criminal justice personnel recognize that the sources of these stereotypes are flawed or based on discriminatory practices themselves will the rationale for maintaining the unofficial policy and practice of racial profiling of criminals be negated.
Description
In the article, “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling,” Kelly Welch details the theoretical elements that have contributed to the development of Black criminal typification. In doing so, she seeks to understand how these stereotypes have been used to justify racial profiling by individuals as well as by law enforcement and officials in other criminal justice institutions. Welch evaluates the factors contributing to the criminal stereotyping of Blacks, drawing on research and practice to highlight how the images of crime conveyed by U.S. culture influence how the public perceives criminality. The current recognizability of the image of a young Black criminal can be tied to various representations of crime, including actual involvement in crime, portrayals of Blacks in the media, and use of the racial hoax (i.e., false allegations of involvement in criminal activity based on the race of the fabricated perpetrator) to mislead law enforcement officials and the public. These phenomena have solidified the stereotype of the young Black man as a criminal threat in the eyes of the public in contemporary U.S. society, which fuels racial profiling by criminal justice officials. The prevalent typification of Blacks as criminals seems to justify law enforcement tactics that exploit race in criminal investigations. Only when criminal justice officials see that the sources of these stereotypes are faulty or based on discriminatory practices will the rationale for maintaining racial profiling of criminals be negated.