ABSTRACT
This chapter forms the first of five data-driven chapters and provides the overarching perspective and framework in which the empirical study is located. This chapter provides an overview and examination of prior research in the area of racial stereotyping and the formation of suspicion concerning police stop-and-searches. The empirical study outlined in this chapter has examined more than 2,100 stop-and-search records of the provincial police force in England and Wales, as well as 20 semi-structured interviews which were conducted with serving police officers (from the same force) to examine whether police officers use prejudicial stereotypes to inform suspicions in their day-to-day policing. The data revealed that the officers rely on certain types of stereotypes (e.g. people’s age, race, appearance, location, and social class) which may sometimes provide useful grounds to inform suspicions about someone. However, there is also a potential risk associated with the use of stereotypes in that people will also be identified by the police as suspicious when they do not warrant such police attention. As a result, this study outlines how such stereotypes can lead police officers to believe that people from a particular area, age, or certain ethnicity are engaged in a particular criminal activity, which poses a threat to police–community relations. This discussion culminates in the notion that racial and prejudicial stereotyping may well be one of the possible explanations that, despite the initiatives taken by the UK Home Office (e.g. the creation of the Home Office Stop and Search Action Plan; Home Office, 2006), people from Black, Asian, and ethnic minority communities are still more likely to be stopped and searched in the United Kingdom.
