Racial-profiling is a practice in which law enforcement agents stop and question people based on the color of their skin. Some law enforcement agencies will focus their attention on persons of a particular ethnicity -- one that they believe to be responsible for a disproportionate percentage of crimes.
Examples include inner-city police forces targeting black men and Transportation Security Administration officers targeting Muslims. Yet, while racial-profiling remains controversial and has been outlawed in some areas, little research has been done regarding whether or not it is an effective law enforcement tactic. This is an intriguing topic for a potential research paper.
Depending on where they are incarcerated, state and federal prisoners may participate in several thousand different in-prison programs designed to aid them in their rehabilitation. Some of these programs are sponsored and designed by the government, while others are private initiatives. Programs include substance-abuse recovery programs, faith-based psychological and spiritual counseling, job skills training and basic education.
Yet, even after a half-century of correctional treatment programs, it remains unclear precisely which programs are most effective and under what conditions. Many states, dissatisfied with the high recidivism rates of recently released ex-offenders, have turned to constructing more prisons and increasing terms of incarceration, rather than refining their treatment. A research paper could attempt to identify which programs most often result in successful outcomes.
A large percentage of law enforcement resources are devoted to the war on drugs, from the time spent by local police departments busting low-level dealers to prisons crowded with inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes related to the purchase and sale of illegal drugs.
Many parties, arguing that money and time are being wasted on criminals who pose little danger to society, have pushed for marijuana to be legalized -- or else, decriminalized, meaning that offenders would face little or no penalty. A research paper might examine the effects the legalization of marijuana has had in other countries and use it to form an argument about the possible consequences of such a step in the United States.