Racial Profiling (book)

Racial Profiling explores the historical and contemporary dimensions of the issue, presenting arguments for and against the practice. After a brief introduction, the first chapter looks at the wartime treatment of Japanese Americans, also covering the Redress Movement . Chapter Two looks at the evolution of racial profiling, beginning with the successful use of a profile created by a psychiatrist to catch New York's Mad Bomber in the 1950s and covering profiling as a means of identifying airplane hijackers in the 1960s and drug couriers in the 1980s. Chapter Three focuses on the rise of racial profiling in 1990s, particularly as aimed at African Americans, with the following chapter outlining the arguments for and against the practice. Chapter Five looks at various Supreme Court cases that touch on the issue of profiling, starting with the Korematsu case. Chapter Six looks at the events surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the renewed call for racial profiling, and the pros and cons of using the practice to try to identify terrorists. A final chapter briefly summarizes the main issues. The book also includes a bibliography and a list of additional resources.

Racial Profiling is part of the "Open for Debate" series that looks at both sides of various contentious contemporary issues.

Author Deborah Kops has written over twenty books since 2000 aimed at juvenile audiences, most having to do with nature or history. She was formerly an editor at both an academic publisher (Northeastern University Press) and a publisher of children's books (Blackbirch Press).

The relatively brief treatment of the Japanese American story is generally accurate.