Investigating Racial Profiling by the Miami-Dade Police Department: A Multimethod Approach (original) (raw)
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Using data collected by the Richmond, Virginia Police Department, this article applies conflict theory to police traffic stop practices. In particular, it explores whether police traffic stop, search, and arrest practices differ according to racial or socioeconomic factors among neighborhoods. Three principal findings emanate from this research. First, the total number of stops by Richmond police was determined solely by the crime rate of the neighborhood. Second, the percentage of stops that resulted in a search was determined by the percentage of Black population. Third, when examining the percentage of stops that ended in an arrest/summons, the analyses suggest that both the percentage of Black population and the area crime rate served to decrease the percentage of police stops that ended in an arrest/summons. Implications for conflict theory and police decision-making are addressed. D
Racial profiling and searches: Did the politics of racial profiling change police behavior?
Criminology & Public Policy, 2009
Scholarly research has documented repeatedly that minority citizens are disproportionately stopped, searched, and arrested relative to their baseline populations. In recent years, policymakers have brought increased attention to this issue as law-enforcement agencies across the United States have faced allegations of racial profiling. In the 1990s, the politics generated by accounts of racially biased policing placed heightened pressure on law-enforcement agencies. However, to date, few studies have explored whether the increased social and political scrutiny placed on police organizations influenced or changed their general pattern of enforcement among black and white citizens. Using data in the search and citation file from the North Carolina Highway Traffic Study, this research specifically examined whether the politics generated by the media coverage of racial profiling and racial profiling legislation in North Carolina influenced the search practices of officers of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol's drug interdiction team. The findings suggest that media accounts and the passage of new legislation were particularly powerful influences, which thereby reduced racial disparity in searches. Declines in the use of consent searches and an increased probability of finding contraband also were influenced by the politics of racial profiling. 343 \\server05\productn\C\CPP\8-2\CPP204.txt unknown Seq: 2 5-JUN-09 8:30
Social Forces, 2005
The current controversy surrounding racial profi ling in America has focused renewed attention on the larger issue of racial bias by the police. Yet little is known about the extent of police racial bias and even less about public perceptions of the problem. This article analyzes recent national survey data on citizens' views of, and reported personal experiences with, several forms of police bias-including differential treatment of individuals and neighborhoods, police prejudice, and racial profi ling. We fi nd that attitudes toward the prevalence and acceptability of these practices are largely shaped by citizens' race, personal experiences with police discrimination, and exposure to news media reporting on incidents of police misconduct. The fi ndings lend support to the group-position theory of race relations.
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Review of Law & Economics, 2007
This study empirically investigates whether racial and ethnic differences in police searches of stopped drivers reflect efficient enforcement or biased policing. Null hypotheses consistent with efficient enforcement are derived from alternative assumptions regarding police objectives: 1) police seek to maximize public safety, and 2) police seek to maximize the hit rate. We use both an outcomes-based non-parametric analysis and a standard benchmarking parametric approach (regression analysis). Both approaches yield the same results: law enforcement officers display both personal and police cultural bias in their propensity to search African American and Latino drivers. African American and Latino status tends to lower the guilt signal required for police suspicion. Further, white officers police differently than their African American and Latino colleagues. White officers are 73 percent of the sworn police force, conduct 88 percent of the searches, and have a hit rate of 20 percent. Latino officers are 11 percent of the sworn labor force, conduct 8 percent of the searches, and have a hit rate of 24 percent. African American officers are 15 percent of the sworn labor force, conduct 4 percent of the searches, and have a hit rate of 26 percent. The preferential treatment of white drivers by police is attenuated with increases in the fraction of racial and ethnic minority residents in the county where the stop occurred.
Racial Profiling: A Persistent Civil Rights Challenge Even in the Twenty-First Century
Case Western Reserve law review, 2016
is an urban sociologist that teaches classes in Public Safety & Justice Management , Contemporary Urban Issues, and African-American Images in Film, and a research associate in the Criminology Research Center at Cleveland State. His research interests include issues affecting minorities and the urban poor, with a specific focus on race, crime, and the criminal justice system. His particular area of expertise is racial profiling, as reflected in his 2011 book, Racial Profiling: Causes and Consequences (Kendall-Hunt Publishing Co.). This research led to the use of traffic cameras in the city of Cleveland, which was intended as a means to reduce the racial bias in traffic enforcement. His recommendation to then-State Senator and current Board Commissioner Nina Turner, calling for a statewide commission on policing, led to Governor Kasich's establishment of The Statewide Taskforce on Police-Community Relations, to which both Dr. Dunn and Commissioner Turner were appointed. He also p...
Perceptions of Racial Profiling: Race, Class, and Personal Experience*
Criminology, 2002
Racial profiling by the police has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years, but we know little about the extent of the problem and even less about public perceptions of profiling. This article analyzes recent national survey data on citizens' views of racial profiling. W e find that both race and personal experience with profiling are strong predictors of attitudes toward profiling and that, among blacks, social class affects views of the prevalence and acceptability of the practice. The findings on social class point to the need for further investigation and explanation of class influences on evaluations of the police.