Professor Scot Wortley
Part of the Solution or the Source of the Problem: The Impact of Racial Profiling Research in Canada.

This paper provides a working definition of racial profiling, followed by a brief review of both the qualitative and quantitative research that has been conducted on this issue in Canada. Discussion will then turn to an analysis of the potential benefits and possible consequences of data collection.

On the one hand, many academics and community members have argued that data collection may help eliminate racial profiling by documenting its existence, providing an effective monitoring system and enabling the evaluation of specific race-relations programs. Advocates say that data collection provides transparency and accountability and may help improve police-minority relations.

Critics, maintain that race-based data collection is expensive, will damage police-minority relations, and will impact officer morale and impede legitimate law enforcement activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of these arguments and their associated policy implications.

Scot Wortley has been a Professor at the Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto since 1996. In 2001 he was appointed the Justice and Law Domain Leader at the Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS). He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses including Introduction to Criminology, Penology, Interpersonal Violence and Policing.

Professor Wortley has made numerous presentations at international conferences and has given talks to officials at all levels of government. He has also published in various academic journals including the American Journal of Sociology, Law and Society Review, the Canadian Journal of Criminology, the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, the British Journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice, the Canadian Journal of Ethnic Studies, Sociological Perspectives and the Journal of Studies on Alcohol. He has also recently published an edited volume on Crime and Criminal Justice in the Caribbean with researchers from the University of the West Indies.