NCJ Number
143901
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1993) Pages: 60-69
Date Published
1993
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the development of criminal profiles, with emphasis on the drug courier profiles, and analyzes the legal issues surrounding their use.
Abstract
The use of drug courier profiles as an element of reasonable suspicion came to the foreground in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Sokolow (1989). In this case, the Court held that the drug enforcement agents had sufficient reasonable suspicion, based on the totality of circumstances, to stop the defendant when they observed his activities in the airport. This decision effectively validates the use of drug profiles as part of the totality of circumstances comprising reasonable suspicion. There is some concern, however, as to whether a profile truly exists or whether it is actually a loose and malleable compilation of characteristics based on experiential knowledge of the drug trade and the exigencies of the situation. There is evidence that profile characteristics vary from city to city and even from case to case. The author advises that acceptance of drug courier profiles by the Supreme Court as part of the totality of circumstances that can constitute reasonable suspicion may have been premature. Serious questions continue about both the empirical and constitutional validity of the profiles. One alternative to the Court's current approach to drug courier profiles, suggested by Wright in 1984, may be to revise the methodology of the balancing approach by restricting governmental searches and seizures to situations where "individualized" or "articulable" suspicion is present. 4 footnotes and 22 references