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Racial profiling, also known as ethnic profiling, is the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether a person is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime (see Offender Profiling). Towards the end of the 20th century in the United States, the practice became controversial among the general public as the potential for abuse by law enforcement came to light.
Civil rights advocates are against the use of racial profiling tactics by the police. They argue that the disproportionate number of convicted minorities is due to "racial profiling".
Countering this, it is argued that including race as one of the several factors in suspect profiling is generally supported by the law enforcement community within the Western world. It is claimed that profiling based on "any" characteristic is a time-tested and universal police tool, and that excluding race as a factor is insensible.

United States debate on racial profiling
In the UK in the early 1980s evidence showed that black people were as much as five times more likely to be stopped by the police, leading satirists to refer to the crime of DWB (Driving While Black). This is possibly an example of racial profiling but was more likely a mixture of that and low-level prejudice.
On July 22, 2005, London Metropolitan Police shot and killed Jean Charles de Menezes, a suspected suicide bomber. Some critics remarked that the situation was aggravated because Menezes looked Middle Eastern; in fact he was Brazilian.

United Kingdom
Racial profiling can occur in health and medicine as well. Doctors may engage in racial profiling in order to customize diagnosis. Sally Satel, a doctor and author of "PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine," states:
"We do it because certain diseases and treatment responses cluster by ethnicity. Recognizing these patterns can help us diagnose disease more efficiently and prescribe medications more effectively. When it comes to practicing medicine, stereotyping often works." (2002, "I am a Racially Profiling Doctor")
It has been "clinically proven" that
- enalapril, a standard treatment for chronic heart failure, was less helpful to blacks than to whites
- blacks metabolize antidepressants (e.g. Prozac) more slowly than Caucasians and Asians
- Asians tend to have a greater sensitivity to narcotics
- Asian males have an unusual propensity for a rare condition in which low potassium causes temporary paralysis
The debate involves the "one-size-fits-all" concept dichotomizing customized prescriptions. The notion of racial profiling in the practice of medicine is contested because it takes into account our genetic differences. However, some argue that it is not in patients' best interests to deny the reality of differences in genetics.
Adding to the debate is the argument that patterns found in "genetic" differences disregard environmental factors. For example, the high occurrence of hypertension in African-Americans may be due to socio-economic factors as opposed to genetics.
Nonetheless, Mike Bamshad, in his article "Genetic Influences on Health: Does Race Matter?" (available at www.jama.com), contends," In the end, however, every human being is genetically unique and so must be treated as an individual, not an example of a group defined by geography or race."

See also
Ronald Weitzer and Steven Tuch. 2006. Race and Policing in America: Conflict and Reform (New York: Cambridge University Press).