In the U.S. criminal justice system, police lineups help eyewitnesses identify suspects based on visual recognition. However, racial profiling can heavily bias this process, leading to wrongful convictions, shattered lives and long-lasting social consequences.
Racial profiling in police lineups involves the use of race as a deciding factor in the selection of suspects. This practice distorts the identification process, increasing the likelihood that innocent individuals are misidentified and unfairly incarcerated.
Racial profiling in police lineups
Profiling occurs when officers intentionally or subconsciously assume that suspects from certain racial or ethnic backgrounds are more likely to commit certain crimes. Unfortunately, some law enforcement officials tend to fill police lineups with individuals from the same racial group as the primary suspect. This may reinforce harmful stereotypes by suggesting that people from marginalized racial groups are interchangeable.
Compounding the issue is the phenomenon known as the cross-race effect, where people are less accurate when identifying individuals from a different racial or ethnic group. White eyewitnesses, for example, are statistically more prone to misidentify Black suspects. When racial profiling determines who makes it into the lineup, the risk of wrongful identification increases dramatically.
Wrongful convictions and their impact
The Innocence Project, which works to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing, estimates that misidentifications by eyewitnesses are a contributing factor in more than 60% of overturned convictions. A significant proportion of these cases involve people of color, demonstrating the racial bias embedded in the identification process. Incarcerated individuals face:
- The loss of years of their lives
- Stigmatization
- Mental health challenges
- Diminished career prospects upon release
Families lose primary caregivers and breadwinners, further entrenching cycles of poverty and marginalization. Meanwhile, the true perpetrators of crimes remain free, undermining the very purpose of the justice system and perpetuating public mistrust in law enforcement.
The misuse of race as a determinant in criminal investigations leads to wrongful convictions, damaging individuals, families and trust in law enforcement. Individuals who are misidentified in a police lineup due to racial profiling can benefit from aggressive criminal defense to clear their name.
