Should 90 year old women be patted down just to "be fair"?

[HassleCat]

29. A fair question

"Is the purpose of screening to prevent potential incidents, or to create the illusion of prevention while making sure not to offend?"

Some of it is real security, and some of it is "security theater," the illusion of security. Most people are unable to tell one from the other. In fact, most of the people doing the screening don't know the difference. More importantly, the people trying to blow up airlines don't know the difference. Between real security and the impression of security, the system appears difficult to circumvent, although we all know it's possible to do so. The objective is to keep terrorists guessing, to keep them confused, to show them multiple layers of security that discourages them.

As far as offending, we in the United States have no choice. Our constitution and legal system prevent us from profiling of any kind, so everyone must be screened to the same standard, although that may mean different specific procedures for people of various ages, genders, etc. Other nations do use profiling with great success. Israel, for example, profiles heavily, and uses profiling in combination with behavioral observation. Not only does our legal system prevent us from following their example, but our circumstances are different, so profiling would not work for us.