The concept of predictive profiting is that it is a method used to assessed and categorized potential for criminal or terrorist methods and operation. Rae (2012) in his article Will it ever be possible to Profile the Terrorist, mentioned three different types of profiling- Racial, gender and age profiling, pathological and psychological profiling and socioeconomic profiling. Racial, gender and age profiling is considered as the crudest and most egregious method of profiling terrorists because it is based on racial characteristics. The concept of racial profiling is to associate ethnic characteristic to possible (typical) criminal behaviors. The concept of pathological and psychological profiling, on the other hand, believes in the link between psychopathological behaviors to criminal tendencies. Psychological profiling is associated with mental condition of individuals. The last type of profiling is the socioeconomic. The individual is assessed on the basis of their educational background, social status, livelihood and marital status. The rationale behind is the belief according to Desmond Tutu that “poverty lies at the heart of terrorism.”
Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council mentioned that profiling is ineffective, because it simply foster cultural stereotyping and not answer the problem of terrorism. It is difficult to predict the concept of a terrorist’s make up becsoause the case of terrorism is complex. Terrorism is a systematic movement that involves various people that may come from different walks of life. Generalizing terrorists is not effective because it simply limits the authority’s data to selected individuals who may not even be a terrorist in the future. The effectiveness of profiling may only be mentioned in a number of cases but its general impact on eradicating the problem of terrorism is still not establish. For instance, in the case of Psychological profiling, do terrorist really possess a definite personality?
Profiling simply categories people into threats and non-threats, but can it really stop the terrorist activities. In so far as the three profiling methods are concerned, profiling is t ye to deliver. A number of terrorist groups are still at large and plotting devious tactics to scare the public. It is difficult to tract and detect terrorist because of the drastic change in today’s society. Technology is considered as one component that changed the face of terrorism because it allowed terrorism activities global, making it more difficult to categorize potential threats because of the diversity of the people involved in the operation. Terrorist group even have sub0groups that operates within local set ups making the networking of terrorist wider.
Among the three types of profiling the most ethical would have to be the pathological and psychological profiling because the other two can be considered a form of hasty generalization. In terms of the psychological profiling, due to the emotive and mental conditions of people, they may be vulnerable to the emotive and destructive tendencies. Racial profiling links terrorism to racial groups. For instance, the Muslims have fallen victims to racial stereotypes due to many reports linking terrorist groups to their religion. Both the socioeconomic and racial, gender and age profiling are selective processes because they select certain groups as a source of national threat. Innocent citizens can be put into surveillance solely on the basis of their situational predisposition. It is also argued that profiling intensifies cases of racisms because people are taunted and tagged as terrorists because of their background.
Reference:
Rae J , Will it ever be possible to Profile the Terrorist?, Journal of Terrorism Research, 2012
