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The extent to which the police engage in "racial profiling" continues to spark debates, especially in the Canadian context. Some argue that the police behave in a discriminatory way, or that minority groups are being targeted for higher levels of proactive policing. Despite police denials of any type of systemic bias or differential treatment linked to race/ethnicity, sociological evidence points to the contrary. In particular, in drawing upon Black's (1976) theory of law, the social locations and status characteristics of the police relative to those whom they encounter are expected to influence police behaviour in predictable ways. Those who are more socially and culturally distant, who have lower social status, who are less socially integrated, and who exhibit a lower normative status are expected to attract more law even after controlling for such factors as the seriousness of the alleged infraction. Indeed, the relative social locations of the general population vis-à-vis the police are expected to influence whether or not citizens are stopped in the first place by the police, as well as the ultimate dispositions of their cases. These ideas are tested with self-report survey data from a diverse sample of young persons (mainly under the age of 25) and their encounters with the police while driving and/or while simply "hanging out." The results largely support key aspects of Black's general theory of law, i.e., that the social geometry of those involved with police encounters largely determines how the law responds. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]