Rachel Lautenschlager - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Rachel Lautenschlager
Race and Justice
The results from several recent studies suggest that police stop rates are elevated in neighborho... more The results from several recent studies suggest that police stop rates are elevated in neighborhoods that are gentrified or undergoing gentrification. However, it remains unclear how these findings fit into the well-documented pattern of racialized proactive policing practices, often interpreted through a racial-threat lens. To further our understanding of how of law enforcement relates to gentrification as a racialized institution, I utilize pedestrian stop data from eight cities to analyze the interconnected relationships between neighborhood-level police stops, temporal changes in racial and ethnic composition, and gentrification processes. Results from negative binomial spatial-durbin models reveal that, controlling for local crime levels and other covariates, police stops are more prevalent in neighborhoods that have experienced decreases in black and Latinx populations and in those surrounding gentrified areas. However, because gentrified and gentrifying neighborhoods have exp...
Social Problems
Recent highly-publicized cases of police violence have raised broader discussions around understa... more Recent highly-publicized cases of police violence have raised broader discussions around understanding use-of-force as institutional racism. We explore how variation in police practices, including discretionary stops and targeting outdoor spaces, along with racialized understandings of crime and space, help explain use-of-force in neighborhoods. Using stop-and-frisk data from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in Census tracts (N = 12675) between 2006 and 2012, we conduct a spatial analysis and estimate multilevel negative binomial regression models. We find relationships between use-of-force incidents and police organizational practices, where police use force more often in neighborhoods where they employ greater discretionary stops, and in neighborhoods where police conduct proportionally more indoor stops. Our findings also point to understanding stop-and-frisk as a spatial strategy concentrated largely in neighborhoods of color, where police use force more often in Black...
A nalyzing data on all adult criminal defendants from 2010 to 2015, we examined individual and ne... more A nalyzing data on all adult criminal defendants from 2010 to 2015, we examined individual and neighborhood racial and ethnic disparities across multiple decision points within Miami-Dade County's criminal justice system: arrest, bond and pretrial detention, charging and disposition, and sentencing. Our analysis uncovered racial and ethnic disparities at each of these decision points. We also found disparities at every decision point that, regardless of ethnicity, result in disadvantages for Black defendants and neighborhoods while resulting in advantages for White defendants and neigh borhoods. This report demonstrates that race and ethnicity shape Miami-Dade County's criminal justice system. Race and ethnicity shape a person's involvement in the criminal justice system and in the system's outcomes. oVeRRepResenteD. Black defendants (regardless of ethnicity) are overrepresented in Miami-Dade County's criminal justice system relative to their population share. pUnitiVe. Black defendants who are Hispanic are most overrepresented and experience the most punitive outcomes at nearly every decision point in the system. pRopoRtionate. White defendants who are not Hispanic are proportionately represented in the county's criminal justice system relative to their population share and experience the least punitive outcomes at nearly every decision point in the system. UnDeRRepResenteD. White defendants who are Hispanic are the most underrepresented in the system relative to their population share. Racial and ethnic disparities occur at all decision points in Miami-Dade county's criminal justice system. aRRest/Detention/conViction. Black defendants, whether Hispanic or non-Hispanic, are disproportionately arrested and, once in the system, are more likely than White defendants to suffer: • longer periods of pretrial detention • greater rates of pretrial detention, conviction, and incarceration pRison teRMs. Black defendants who are not Hispanic are sentenced to longer prison terms than any other racial or ethnic group. aRRest JoNaTHaN PiccoLo acLU of florida and its greater Miami chapter | aclufl.org/unequaltreatment | 13 Key Findings aRRest Rates. In Miami-Dade County, Black people are arrested at higher rates than are other groups. As a result, Black Hispanics comprise four times more of the arrested population than their share of the county population, and Black non-Hispanic arrestees comprise over two times more of the arrested population than their county population share. DispaRities. Black people are disproportionately arrested, even for crimes committed in largely White neighborhoods, and neighborhoods with a large Black non-Hispanic population have higher arrest rates .
Justice Quarterly, 2018
This study examines race, space, perceptions of disorder, and nuisance crime prosecution in Miami... more This study examines race, space, perceptions of disorder, and nuisance crime prosecution in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Research has examined nuisance policing, yet little attention has been devoted to nuisance crime prosecutions, especially at the neighborhood level. Aggregating data on defendants arrested for nuisance offenses from 2012 to 2015 up to the neighborhood level, we estimate count models for pretrial detention, case acceptance, conviction, and sentencing outcomes in neighborhoods. We find two patterns of nuisance crime prosecution. Drug disorder prosecutions are concentrated in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods with large Black defendant populations, suggesting a more suppressive treatment of these "marginalized" spaces. In contrast, greater enforcement of homelessness and alcohol nuisance crimes in White non-Hispanic neighborhoods suggests disorder prosecutions are also used to impose order and containment in more economically "prime" spaces. These countervailing patterns highlight the spatial contingency of nuisance enforcement, whereby prosecutors differentially enforce nuisance crimes in prime and marginalized spaces.
Journal of Crime and Justice, 2019
Proponents of the 'Ferguson effect' suggest de-policingstemming from increased public scrutiny ov... more Proponents of the 'Ferguson effect' suggest de-policingstemming from increased public scrutiny over the death of Michael Brownis responsible for the recent surge in crime across the United States. While this phenomenon has been the subject of widespread speculation, the hypothesized mechanism through which public scrutiny of police impacts crime have remained unexplored. This study attempts to fill the gap by deconstructing the effects of public scrutiny on crime trends in New York City police precincts over a two-year period (2014-2015). Findings indicate partial support for the Ferguson effect. While public scrutiny predicted variations in de-policing, the results show de-policing did not predict increases in crime. Interestingly, this study finds public scrutiny had a significant positive direct effect on crime rates, suggesting it increased crime through alternative causal processes. These findings have important theoretical and policy implications for understanding the causes and prevention of crime.
Justice Quarterly, 2018
In this paper, we examine use-of-force incidents as neighborhood processes to understand how rate... more In this paper, we examine use-of-force incidents as neighborhood processes to understand how rates and levels of use-of-force vary across New York City. We suggest that there are two distinct outcomes of force by the police: number of use-of-force incidents and level of force. Applying theories of racial threat, social disorganization, and Klinger's ecological theory of policing, we conceptualize use-of-force as a neighborhood phenomenon rather than individual events. Our results suggest that rates and levels of force operate in some distinct ways. In particular, while we find that use-of-force is concentrated in Black neighborhoods, and is also more severe in Black neighborhoods, neighborhoods with higher racial and ethnic heterogeneity have decreasing force incidents, but with increasing severity. This may reflect different types of policing, with high rates of low-level police harassment occurring in primarily poorer, Black neighborhoods, and more isolated but severe incidents occurring in middle-income and wealthier mixed neighborhoods.
Race and Justice
The results from several recent studies suggest that police stop rates are elevated in neighborho... more The results from several recent studies suggest that police stop rates are elevated in neighborhoods that are gentrified or undergoing gentrification. However, it remains unclear how these findings fit into the well-documented pattern of racialized proactive policing practices, often interpreted through a racial-threat lens. To further our understanding of how of law enforcement relates to gentrification as a racialized institution, I utilize pedestrian stop data from eight cities to analyze the interconnected relationships between neighborhood-level police stops, temporal changes in racial and ethnic composition, and gentrification processes. Results from negative binomial spatial-durbin models reveal that, controlling for local crime levels and other covariates, police stops are more prevalent in neighborhoods that have experienced decreases in black and Latinx populations and in those surrounding gentrified areas. However, because gentrified and gentrifying neighborhoods have exp...
Social Problems
Recent highly-publicized cases of police violence have raised broader discussions around understa... more Recent highly-publicized cases of police violence have raised broader discussions around understanding use-of-force as institutional racism. We explore how variation in police practices, including discretionary stops and targeting outdoor spaces, along with racialized understandings of crime and space, help explain use-of-force in neighborhoods. Using stop-and-frisk data from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in Census tracts (N = 12675) between 2006 and 2012, we conduct a spatial analysis and estimate multilevel negative binomial regression models. We find relationships between use-of-force incidents and police organizational practices, where police use force more often in neighborhoods where they employ greater discretionary stops, and in neighborhoods where police conduct proportionally more indoor stops. Our findings also point to understanding stop-and-frisk as a spatial strategy concentrated largely in neighborhoods of color, where police use force more often in Black...
A nalyzing data on all adult criminal defendants from 2010 to 2015, we examined individual and ne... more A nalyzing data on all adult criminal defendants from 2010 to 2015, we examined individual and neighborhood racial and ethnic disparities across multiple decision points within Miami-Dade County's criminal justice system: arrest, bond and pretrial detention, charging and disposition, and sentencing. Our analysis uncovered racial and ethnic disparities at each of these decision points. We also found disparities at every decision point that, regardless of ethnicity, result in disadvantages for Black defendants and neighborhoods while resulting in advantages for White defendants and neigh borhoods. This report demonstrates that race and ethnicity shape Miami-Dade County's criminal justice system. Race and ethnicity shape a person's involvement in the criminal justice system and in the system's outcomes. oVeRRepResenteD. Black defendants (regardless of ethnicity) are overrepresented in Miami-Dade County's criminal justice system relative to their population share. pUnitiVe. Black defendants who are Hispanic are most overrepresented and experience the most punitive outcomes at nearly every decision point in the system. pRopoRtionate. White defendants who are not Hispanic are proportionately represented in the county's criminal justice system relative to their population share and experience the least punitive outcomes at nearly every decision point in the system. UnDeRRepResenteD. White defendants who are Hispanic are the most underrepresented in the system relative to their population share. Racial and ethnic disparities occur at all decision points in Miami-Dade county's criminal justice system. aRRest/Detention/conViction. Black defendants, whether Hispanic or non-Hispanic, are disproportionately arrested and, once in the system, are more likely than White defendants to suffer: • longer periods of pretrial detention • greater rates of pretrial detention, conviction, and incarceration pRison teRMs. Black defendants who are not Hispanic are sentenced to longer prison terms than any other racial or ethnic group. aRRest JoNaTHaN PiccoLo acLU of florida and its greater Miami chapter | aclufl.org/unequaltreatment | 13 Key Findings aRRest Rates. In Miami-Dade County, Black people are arrested at higher rates than are other groups. As a result, Black Hispanics comprise four times more of the arrested population than their share of the county population, and Black non-Hispanic arrestees comprise over two times more of the arrested population than their county population share. DispaRities. Black people are disproportionately arrested, even for crimes committed in largely White neighborhoods, and neighborhoods with a large Black non-Hispanic population have higher arrest rates .
Justice Quarterly, 2018
This study examines race, space, perceptions of disorder, and nuisance crime prosecution in Miami... more This study examines race, space, perceptions of disorder, and nuisance crime prosecution in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Research has examined nuisance policing, yet little attention has been devoted to nuisance crime prosecutions, especially at the neighborhood level. Aggregating data on defendants arrested for nuisance offenses from 2012 to 2015 up to the neighborhood level, we estimate count models for pretrial detention, case acceptance, conviction, and sentencing outcomes in neighborhoods. We find two patterns of nuisance crime prosecution. Drug disorder prosecutions are concentrated in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods with large Black defendant populations, suggesting a more suppressive treatment of these "marginalized" spaces. In contrast, greater enforcement of homelessness and alcohol nuisance crimes in White non-Hispanic neighborhoods suggests disorder prosecutions are also used to impose order and containment in more economically "prime" spaces. These countervailing patterns highlight the spatial contingency of nuisance enforcement, whereby prosecutors differentially enforce nuisance crimes in prime and marginalized spaces.
Journal of Crime and Justice, 2019
Proponents of the 'Ferguson effect' suggest de-policingstemming from increased public scrutiny ov... more Proponents of the 'Ferguson effect' suggest de-policingstemming from increased public scrutiny over the death of Michael Brownis responsible for the recent surge in crime across the United States. While this phenomenon has been the subject of widespread speculation, the hypothesized mechanism through which public scrutiny of police impacts crime have remained unexplored. This study attempts to fill the gap by deconstructing the effects of public scrutiny on crime trends in New York City police precincts over a two-year period (2014-2015). Findings indicate partial support for the Ferguson effect. While public scrutiny predicted variations in de-policing, the results show de-policing did not predict increases in crime. Interestingly, this study finds public scrutiny had a significant positive direct effect on crime rates, suggesting it increased crime through alternative causal processes. These findings have important theoretical and policy implications for understanding the causes and prevention of crime.
Justice Quarterly, 2018
In this paper, we examine use-of-force incidents as neighborhood processes to understand how rate... more In this paper, we examine use-of-force incidents as neighborhood processes to understand how rates and levels of use-of-force vary across New York City. We suggest that there are two distinct outcomes of force by the police: number of use-of-force incidents and level of force. Applying theories of racial threat, social disorganization, and Klinger's ecological theory of policing, we conceptualize use-of-force as a neighborhood phenomenon rather than individual events. Our results suggest that rates and levels of force operate in some distinct ways. In particular, while we find that use-of-force is concentrated in Black neighborhoods, and is also more severe in Black neighborhoods, neighborhoods with higher racial and ethnic heterogeneity have decreasing force incidents, but with increasing severity. This may reflect different types of policing, with high rates of low-level police harassment occurring in primarily poorer, Black neighborhoods, and more isolated but severe incidents occurring in middle-income and wealthier mixed neighborhoods.