Racial Profiling

University, note that many criminology and criminal justice programs now either require
or offer elective courses on the topic of the relationship between race and crime.
Sociologist Orlando Patterson has explained these controversies as disputes between
liberal and conservative criminologists in which each camp focuses on mutually
exclusive aspects of the causal net, with liberals focusing on factors external to the
groups in question and conservatives focusing on internal cultural and behavioral
factors.
Conflict Theory
Modern Theories of Causation
Conflict theory is considered "one of the most popular theoretical frameworks among
race and crime scholars". Rather than one monolithic theory, conflict theory represents
a group of closely related theories which operate on a common set of fundamental
assumptions. As a general theory of criminal behavior, conflict theory proposes that
crime is an inevitable consequence of the conflict which arises between competing
groups within society. Such groups can be defined through a number of factors,
including class, economic status, religion, language, ethnicity, race or any combination
thereof. Further, conflict theory proposes that crime could be largely eliminated if the
structure of society were to be changed.
The form of conflict theory which emphasizes the role of economics, being heavily
influenced by the work of Karl Marx and sometimes referred to as Marxist criminology,
views crime as a natural response to the inequality arising from the competition inherent
in capitalist society. Sociologists and criminologists emphasizing this aspect of social
conflict argue that, in a competitive society in which there is an inequality in the
distribution of goods, those groups with limited or restricted access to goods will be
more likely to turn to crime. Dutch criminologist Willem Adriaan Bonger, one of the first
scholars to apply the principles of economic determinism to the issue of crime, argued
that such inequality as found in capitalism was ultimately responsible for the
manifestation of crime at all levels of society, particularly among the poor. Though this
line of thinking has been criticized for requiring the establishment of a utopian socialist
society, the notion that the disproportionality observed in minority representation in
crime rate statistics could be understood as the result of systematic economic
disadvantage found its way into many of the theories developed in subsequent
generations.
Culture conflict theory, derived from the pioneering work of sociologist Thorsten Sellin,
emphasizes the role of culturally accepted norms of conduct in the formation of cultural
groups and the conflicts which arise through their interaction. Culture conflict theory
argues that the group with the most power in any society ensures that their values,
traditions and behaviors, which Sellin referred to as "conduct norms", are those to which
all other members of society are forced to conform, and any actions which conflict with
the interests of the dominant group are identified as deviant and/or criminal in nature.
Sellin's original ideas continued to be developed throughout the 20th century, most
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