Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
profiling [proh-fahy-ling] noun
- the use of personal characteristics or behavior patterns to make generalizations about a person, as in gender profiling.
- the use of these characteristics to determine whether a person may be engaged in illegal activity, as in racial profiling.
British Dictionary definitions for racial profiling racial profiling noun
- government activity directed at a suspect or group of suspects based solely on race
profiling noun
- the practice of categorizing people and predicting their behaviour according to particular characteristics such as race or ageracial profiling
Word Origin and History for racial profiling profiling n.
by 1852 as a term in field engineering, verbal noun from profile (v.). The racial/ethnic stereotyping sense is attested from c.1991, American English.