Why Do People Regulate Discrimination?

Discrimination is the unfair treatment of people due to their race, age, religion, national origin, or sex. People discriminate for different reasons. The first theory is social transmission; people learn discrimination through social transmissions of prejudices. The second theory is similarity attraction hypothesis (byrne); people like other people who are like themselves based on exposure. The third theory is social identification and categorization (tajfel and turner); people feel like their being treated unfairly based on how the group is being treated. The law, however, states that an employer cannot refuse to hire someone based on race, religion, sex, or national origin and cannot do anything with compensation, terms of employment, conditions, or privileges based on race, religion, sex, or national origin. Additionally, employers cannot limit, segregate, or classify employees. The three most important laws that regulate discrimination in employment are: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination and Employment Act, and The Americans with disabilities Act.
An employer may however, have reason for use of a protected characteristic as being a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ), as it is permitted under the law for claims such as sex, religion, and national origin only. For example, when seeking a new officer, my office only open the position up to male applicants, as there was a dire need for a male officer to perform duties that a female officer could not (i.e. observed urinary screen for male