Shopping Under Suspicion: Understanding Racial and Ethnic Profiling in American and Canadian Retailers

This seminar is devoted to an examination of the experiences of Americans and Canadians being criminally profiled in retail stores. Using one’s race or ethnicity as the primary method to identify potential shoplifters is referred to as Consumer Racial Profiling (CRP). After reviewing two decades of CRP scholarship in the United States, the presentation focuses on recent research findings in Canada. The Canadian research study investigated three aspects of CRP. First, the study sought to determine the level of CRP victimization among Canadians. Second, whether the likelihood of CRP victimization varied by race/ethnicity. Finally, whether CRP victims reported their encounter to an employee in authority following their victimization. Among the findings was evidence that CRP is a national problem in Canada—with non-White racial/ethnic groups reporting the highest levels of victimization. The implications of the results along with future research directions are also discussed.

Shaun L. Gabbidon, PhD. is a Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at Penn State Harrisburg. He also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University Park campus. Professor Gabbidon is a Fellow of both the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). In 2024, he was the recipient of the Faculty Scholar Medal for the Social Sciences, which is the highest award for scholarship at Penn State University. Dr. Gabbidon will be a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at The University of Birmingham (UK) during Spring 2025.

Shaun L. Gabbidon, School of Public Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg