Racial Profiling and the Social Construction of Race in Australia

While both “race” and “crime” are socially constructed, in the minds of many Australians they are causally linked. The belief that particular racial groups are more criminal than others creates a rationalization for racial profiling and is provided as a justification for the unequal outcomes of institutions across Australia, including the police. There is, however, no scientific basis for this stereotype and any research that claims otherwise fails to control for the structural, historic, and socioeconomic factors that lie behind such a claim. Conversely, however, racial appearance does change the way police respond to individuals in Australia. Recent research from Victoria provides evidence that police are more likely to proactively stop and question First Nations, Pasifika, African, and Middle-Eastern/Muslim appearing people before they have identified an offense. This chapter explores the race-crime stereotype, the meaning of racial profiling and recent evidence of racial profiling in Victoria. However, while the race-crime stereotype contributes to racial profiling, the solution is not antibias training. Instead, if police wish to retain any social license in the face of the growing defund the police movement, they must eliminate the specific operational practices they engage in that lead to racial profiling. Furthermore, these changes must be embedded through external monitoring and accountability.