October 11, 2007
Study: Store Security Involved in Racial Profiling
A large percentage of black consumers have been targeted by security personnel in retail stores because of their skin color, according to a professor of criminal justice at Penn State.
Dr. Shaun Gabbidon said 43 percent of blacks who participated in a research project he directed believe they had been treated differently in some retail stores because of their race.
Interestingly, many of these consumers appear to being resigned to such treatment in stores. According to Dr. Gabbidon, 82 percent of those who believe they have come under suspicion because of their skin color never made a formal complaint. Almost 40 percent even returned to shop at the same store on another occasion.
“They have normalized the treatment — and accept it as a fact of life,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Dr. Gabbidon first became interested in racial profiling when he worked as a store detective in Macy’s nearly two decades back. At the time, he noticed, he was being called to check on suspicious shoppers who often turned out to be minorities. Many of these shoppers, he noted, weren’t doing anything of a suspicious nature.
Respondents to the study who believed they have been the target of racial profiling in stores said that most often it was a white employee, usually a clerk, engaging in the activity. Fifty percent said white workers had made a judgment about them because of race while 20 percent said the employee was black, 11 percent said it was someone of Asian ancestry and five percent were Latinos.
“People bring their biases to work with them,” Dr. Gabbidon told the Post-Gazette.
Discussion Questions: Do you believe Dr. Gabbidon’s study findings are accurate and that retailers have a racial profiling problem? If so, does the practice get in the way of catching real shoplifters? What do you find most interesting about Dr. Gabbidon’s research?
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I’m with Raymond. Believing something is true is not the same thing as being true. Many members of minority groups–racial, gender, religious, sexual orientation, etc.–are hyper-sensitized to signs of discrimination. Often–in fact more than often–this sensitivity is the result of the generalization of one or more REAL experiences, or the shared consciousness of collective discrimination. So, if an African-American has, for example, been the victim of some discriminatory practice or practices in the past (and how many have not?) it’s easy to see patterns of discrimination in situations where they may or may not exist.
We are all subject to this pattern recognition behavior. How many times have you heard something like, “He/she only got that job because they are____?” Or, “She/he didn’t get that job because they were _____?” We are sentient creatures, but a key to our intellect is the ability to reason from the specific to the general. So, I’ll reserve judgment until I see a study that says that 43 percent of African-American shoppers were–in fact–racially profiled before I may a judgment. My bet, absent evidence? If you studied those shoppers lives, a lot more than 43 percent of them would indeed have been discriminated against on the basis of race at some (or several) points in their lives. Their perception may not be unreasonable, but it also isn’t verified.
I happen to own a red convertible auto. Every time I drive that car, I feel the cops are unfairly targeting me. In fact, actual statistical studies show this is not the case.
I would question any conclusions drawn on the basis of people feeling like they are unfairly targeted. You need to have actual data on incidences of wrongful detention in order to draw such broad and inflammatory conclusions.
I don’t see enough information on this study to really comment about it. However, it was conducted among a limited number of respondents in a very racially-charged urban area. This is enough to make me look at it with some skepticism.
If you’re asking whether racial profiling exists–of course it does. Right or wrong, retailers are taking a lot of steps to prevent costly inventory loss and hold down theft-related shrink. But this is a highly sensitive issue and I think stores have to do more in terms of training their security staffs in proper procedures and make the investment in surveillance technology that will avoid embarrassing and illegal situations.
It would be interesting to study store security procedures in minority owned and operated retailers to see if racial profiling exists. Of course it does and probably to a greater degree.
Retailers do not have a racial profiling problem. Retailers have a shoplifting problem.
One of the best advantages to retail surveillance technology is its lack of bias. The more stores that use radio frequency tags, recorded video surveillance, and statistical transaction analysis, the more it becomes clear who needs to be caught. If theft, embezzlement, and fraud cases aren’t initiated because of predetermined unbiased norms violations, it’s reasonable to ask what motivated the investigation or selective observation. As a comparison, if police use radar guns to stop everyone speeding, it seems unbiased.
I’ve had a really interesting personal experience. I’m white. My middle son is a student in a location where he’s a minority. A rational kid, knows his way around the streets of NYC, been to poor villages in Africa, etc. Never had a racist bone in his body (hey, it’s his father speaking!). Anyway, I visited him awhile ago, and noticed his deep distrust for the locals. For example, shortly after we had his car filled with gas by a local who also checked the oil, the car began to choke a little. He immediately expressed the belief that the guy at the gas station had “screwed with the car. I know he did! I should have been watching him!” It turned out to be nothing, but it was sad and weird to see my son react this way, almost as if he were black driving thru a small town in the South in the ’50s. He says he’s been physically harassed, threatened and cheated frequently, and that it’s given him new insights into racism. There were times I thought he was over-reacting, almost over the top, but then I haven’t walked that mile in his moccasins. But it’s had an effect on how I view accusations of people who say they’ve been profiled or treated unfairly. I just think of my son and his personal journey. The anger inside my son is sad to see, and very real. I hope it passes over time. All part of life, I guess.
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I’m with Raymond. Believing something is true is not the same thing as being true. Many members of minority groups–racial, gender, religious, sexual orientation, etc.–are hyper-sensitized to signs of discrimination. Often–in fact more than often–this sensitivity is the result of the generalization of one or more REAL experiences, or the shared consciousness of collective discrimination. So, if an African-American has, for example, been the victim of some discriminatory practice or practices in the past (and how many have not?) it’s easy to see patterns of discrimination in situations where they may or may not exist.
We are all subject to this pattern recognition behavior. How many times have you heard something like, “He/she only got that job because they are____?” Or, “She/he didn’t get that job because they were _____?” We are sentient creatures, but a key to our intellect is the ability to reason from the specific to the general. So, I’ll reserve judgment until I see a study that says that 43 percent of African-American shoppers were–in fact–racially profiled before I may a judgment. My bet, absent evidence? If you studied those shoppers lives, a lot more than 43 percent of them would indeed have been discriminated against on the basis of race at some (or several) points in their lives. Their perception may not be unreasonable, but it also isn’t verified.
I happen to own a red convertible auto. Every time I drive that car, I feel the cops are unfairly targeting me. In fact, actual statistical studies show this is not the case.
I would question any conclusions drawn on the basis of people feeling like they are unfairly targeted. You need to have actual data on incidences of wrongful detention in order to draw such broad and inflammatory conclusions.
I don’t see enough information on this study to really comment about it. However, it was conducted among a limited number of respondents in a very racially-charged urban area. This is enough to make me look at it with some skepticism.
If you’re asking whether racial profiling exists–of course it does. Right or wrong, retailers are taking a lot of steps to prevent costly inventory loss and hold down theft-related shrink. But this is a highly sensitive issue and I think stores have to do more in terms of training their security staffs in proper procedures and make the investment in surveillance technology that will avoid embarrassing and illegal situations.
It would be interesting to study store security procedures in minority owned and operated retailers to see if racial profiling exists. Of course it does and probably to a greater degree.
Retailers do not have a racial profiling problem. Retailers have a shoplifting problem.
One of the best advantages to retail surveillance technology is its lack of bias. The more stores that use radio frequency tags, recorded video surveillance, and statistical transaction analysis, the more it becomes clear who needs to be caught. If theft, embezzlement, and fraud cases aren’t initiated because of predetermined unbiased norms violations, it’s reasonable to ask what motivated the investigation or selective observation. As a comparison, if police use radar guns to stop everyone speeding, it seems unbiased.
I’ve had a really interesting personal experience. I’m white. My middle son is a student in a location where he’s a minority. A rational kid, knows his way around the streets of NYC, been to poor villages in Africa, etc. Never had a racist bone in his body (hey, it’s his father speaking!). Anyway, I visited him awhile ago, and noticed his deep distrust for the locals. For example, shortly after we had his car filled with gas by a local who also checked the oil, the car began to choke a little. He immediately expressed the belief that the guy at the gas station had “screwed with the car. I know he did! I should have been watching him!” It turned out to be nothing, but it was sad and weird to see my son react this way, almost as if he were black driving thru a small town in the South in the ’50s. He says he’s been physically harassed, threatened and cheated frequently, and that it’s given him new insights into racism. There were times I thought he was over-reacting, almost over the top, but then I haven’t walked that mile in his moccasins. But it’s had an effect on how I view accusations of people who say they’ve been profiled or treated unfairly. I just think of my son and his personal journey. The anger inside my son is sad to see, and very real. I hope it passes over time. All part of life, I guess.