Policing and Racial Discrimination: Throwing Out the Baby with the Bath Water

Abstract

Husak contends that the state should not abolish a police practice such as Stop Question and Frisk (SQF) simply because it has a disparate impact on racial minorities. The ultimate verdict on this practice depends on whether its advantages are sufficient to offset its costs—especially inasmuch as the crime-reduction effects of SQF tend to disproportionately benefit the very racial minorities who are subject to it. Husak reconstructs and responds to arguments of legal theorists who disagree with him, and seemingly believe that no practice implemented by legal officials who suffer from implicit racial biases can ever be justified.