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One of the shopkeepers quoted in the article: "Shoplifting has always been an issue and as long as there’s stores, lower-income people are going to have a highe

One of the shopkeepers quoted in the article: "Shoplifting has always been an issue and as long as there’s stores, lower-income people are going to have a higher tendency to steal." Beyond the obvious offense of profiling, the danger of relying on stereotypes is that they lead you to be suspicious of the wrong persons. According to a large CDC study[1]: "Shoplifting occurred across all sociodemographic strata. However, it was more common among those with higher education and income, suggesting that financial considerations are unlikely to be the main motivator for shoplifting in most cases. It was also more common among Native Americans and non-Hispanic whites, possibly indicating a racial/cultural dimension not previously documented." [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4104590/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4104590/

hackuser 11y ago
There are two more problems: 1) Most importantly, responsibility and justice must be on an individual level: An individual has absolutely no responsibility for the actions of others who happen share some characteristics with them. If I'm short, I'm not responsible for what other short people do and shouldn't suffer any consequences from it. 2) Profiling leads to many false-positive errors. Consider that even the disparity is so large that 1% of group A and only 0.1% of group B is criminal: * If your customers are 99% group B, you will see ~10 times as many group B criminals as group A. * If you suspect everyone in group A, you'll be wrong and harassing innocent people 99% of the time. The real problem, returning to my first point, is objectifying people: Seeing them as merely threats to your store - like a 2-dimensional character in an action movie - instead of real people with their own lives, feelings and interests. It's much easier to do with people you are unfamiliar with, such as other cultures, races, economic classes, etc.

hackuser 11y ago

There are two more problems: 1) Most importantly, responsibility and justice must be on an individual level: An individual has absolutely no responsibility for the actions of others who happen share some characteristics with them. If I'm short, I'm not responsible for what other short people do and shouldn't suffer any consequences from it. 2) Profiling leads to many false-positive errors. Consider that even the disparity is so large that 1% of group A and only 0.1% of group B is criminal: * If your customers are 99% group B, you will see ~10 times as many group B criminals as group A. * If you suspect everyone in group A, you'll be wrong and harassing innocent people 99% of the time. The real problem, returning to my first point, is objectifying people: Seeing them as merely threats to your store - like a 2-dimensional character in an action movie - instead of real people with their own lives, feelings and interests. It's much easier to do with people you are unfamiliar with, such as other cultures, races, economic classes, etc.