Consumer Racial Profiling

Overview of CRP

CRP is one type of discrimination against consumers. It involves differential treatment of consumers that either denies or degrades products and/or services based on the customer's race or ethnicity. This differential treatment involves suspecting that a customer is engaging in criminal activity.

The colloquial expression “Shopping while Black or Brown” is derived from a similar expression—“Driving while Black or Brown” (DWB)— which typically refers to incidents in which law enforcement officers stop, question, investigate, detain, and/or arrest motorists based on their race or ethnicity rather than on probable cause or even a reasonable suspicion that they have engaged in criminal activity. Attempts to justify such behavior by law enforcement officials are often based on the assumption that minority motorists are more likely to engage in criminal activity while driving. Due to increased concern over DWB, many states are now engaged in ongoing data collection to assess the validity of traffic-related racial profiling claims. Results of some of these early studies call into question the assumption that minority drivers have a greater propensity to engage in criminal activity. For example, in one recent study of Rhode Island traffic stops conducted by Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice, non-White motorists were 2.5 times more likely to be searched than White motorists. However, when the traffic stop resulted in a search, Whites were more likely to be found with contraband.

The same issues and concerns need to be analyzed in the context of consumer racial profiling. While DWB involves law enforcement officers, the profiling of customers is done by store owners, managers, clerks, security guards, and/or other representatives of the seller. In some cases, CRP may involve police officers who are called to the scene in their capacity as law enforcement officers or who are employed as off-duty security guards serving in the capacity as private actors. Given that CRP typically occurs on the private premises of a commercial establishment, customers have fewer rights as “invitees” than they do as citizens traveling on public roadways.

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