2. The Conflict Theory is based around power, control, dominance,
disparity, discrimination, and the inequality that many people in society
experience.
Conflict is seen as necessary in maintaining social order.
The powerful and elite people in society dominant the social order; laws
are often passed to ensure that this group remains in control.
Many times laws are passed because of the inherent threat to the nation
which threatens the wellbeing of everyone and are carried out by law
enforcement officials.
While the initial laws may be necessary at the time for the safety and
wellbeing of everyone, authorities can also abuse the law to ensure that
the less fortunate people in society remain less fortunate. Abuse of
power can and often does transpire through discriminatory practices
which result in racial profiling, racial discrimination, and overall
disparity and inequality of certain groups in society.
Conflict separates the have’s from the have not’s and ensures that the
“have’s” will always dominant the social order.
4. Some Positive aspects Some Consequences of
of the act the act
Allows the FBI, law enforcement officers, and Much controversy surrounds the enactment of
prosecutors to share information that they this law; many people are willing to give up
could not previously; created a united front. some of their rights in support of the war on
Allows law enforcement to obtain a search terrorism. Others feel the moment the plane
warrant from any jurisdiction where terrorist came into contact with the world trade center
related activities have occurred; often times the government used that fatal, heart-
many jurisdictions may be involved which in wrenching tragedy to infringe upon our rights
the past would result in individual search spelled out in the Bill of Rights.
warrants from each jurisdiction being required. The act violates our First, Fourth, and Fifth
Increases the maximum penalties for terrorists Amendment rights. The checks and balances
and anyone found guilty of helping, planning, system has been eliminated.
or carry out terrorist activities. Anyone of us can be a target of “Sneak and
Allows federal agents to use roving wiretaps Peak” searches and intrusion of private
that are person specific and the right to records from the FBI.
perform secret searches without the The act has been utilized to Racial Profile
knowledge of suspected terrorists until a later many of our American citizens, mainly, our
time. Muslim and Arab citizens.
5. ORIGINAL INTENTION END RESULTS
The Stop and Frisk law was enacted from As with any law that gives law enforcement
the landmark case Terry v. Ohio. the right to act outside of an Amendment, in
this case, the Fourth Amendment, there is a
Under this law, police no longer have to
high probability that some law enforcement
wait for a crime to occur before they are officers will abuse the law to further their own
allowed to act nor are they required to get a agendas.
search warrant or read someone their
The “Stop and Frisk” law has been under fire
Miranda Rights.
because many people in society feel the law is
An officer with “articulable reasonable being used as a tool to Racial Profile minority
suspicion…may conduct a brief groups, especially African Americans.
investigatory stop, including a pat down for While New York and Los Angeles have been
weapons if the officer has reason to suspect in the headlines for using this law to Racial
the person is armed and dangerous” (Harr, Profile, this is an epidemic that exists in every
Hess, & Orthmann, 2012, p. 213.). state because while the law has good
Only reasonable suspicion need to be intentions it leaves the door open for abuse.
determined under the Stop and Frisk law,
probable cause does not apply.
6. Immigration Law from the beginning of time has promoted racial
profiling and racial discrimination.
The Naturalization Act of 1790 – restricted naturalization to white
people who possessed good moral character.
Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1870 allowed African
Americans to immigrate to the United States.
The Chinese were excluded from further immigration attempts because
they were bringing their own cultures, rules, and norms to American
causing havoc.
1921 brought quotas and was further backed by the Immigration Act of
1924 which capped the number of people who could migrate to the
United States from a different country based on the number of people
from that group or country that were already present in the United
States.
Basically, only white people could immigrate to the United States
without having a mathematical formula.
7. Arizona’s SB 1070 Law is different than past Immigration attempts made by the Federal
Government because it was enacted due to the failure of the Federal Government to secure
borders which consequently left the citizens of Arizona vulnerable and under attack from the
drug cartels and other crimes which endangered the state and everyone who lives there.
Basically, the government hung Arizona out to dry so Arizona responded by utilizing
Immigration Laws that were on the federal governments books to help with the crisis.
Arizona was sued along with the Governor for enacting a law that clearly promoted Racial
Profiling…the question is where did the racial profiling start if Arizona used laws that were
already on the books? Answer: The Federal Government.
Not surprising, the part of the law that was most disputed by President Obama because it
promoted racial profiling dealt with people in Arizona having to show proof that they were
legally allowed to be in the United States if they were pulled over or detained for some other
infraction by law enforcement officials, was upheld by The United States Supreme Court.
Why? Part of the reason is that any State has the right to help the Federal Government with
Immigration violations and the other part surely revolved around the fact that if they stated that
Arizona’s Immigration Law was unconstitutional they would also have to do the same
regarding the federal government because Arizona did nothing but adopt laws already on the
books, in that area anyway.
8. Racial profiling is alive and well
today in the United States. All of the
laws discussed in this presentation
have very good intentions which
revolve around protecting our
nation and all of us. However, these
laws also open the door for abuse
of many of our American citizens
because there will always be people
in the criminal justice system that
will abuse these laws because they
9. Harr, J.S., Hess, K.M., & Orthmann, C.H. (2012).
Constitutional law and the criminal justice
system (5th Ed., pp. 213, 356-359). Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth
Immigration Law: An overview. Retrieved from:
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/immigration
Lilly, J.R., Cullen, F.T., & Ball, R.A. (2011). Social power
and the construction of crime: Conflict theory.
Criminological theory: Context and consequences
(5th ed., pp. 166-198). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications, Inc.