When looking at racial profiling, some may “explain away” the large disparity between those who are stopped, by saying that African Americans are stopped more because they are committing more crimes. This is still discrimination. As citizens and academics, we must try to determine if these racial traffics stops are a product of statistical discrimination or preference based discrimination. Statistical discrimination is the inequality of race, gender, etc based on stereotypes. This can be anything from charging elderly people more for life insurance to requiring a Bachelor’s degree for a job. If this case were true than racial disparities in a large collection of data of stops and searches do not imply prejudice. This would give validity to a police officer who attempt to maximize successful searches if black drivers are more prone to carrying contraband. However, if police officers are profiling drivers because the officer is racist themselves; this would be an example of preference based policing.
Researchers have tried to examine this problem many ways. Generally racial profiling is difficult to prove because of hidden or lack of data. One of the most compelling tests I found for determining this question is known as the Knowles, Persico and Todd model. In this game theory-esque model, they tried to de-emphasized guilt and innocence. In their statistical model, they placed motorist and officers up against each other giving each two actions, shown in the picture. The researchers determined that the police take into account race, gender, age, residential address of the driver, interior of the car, the smell of the driver or car, whether the driver is intoxicated and their demeanor. Their model implies that if police are unprejudiced the rate of guilt should not vary across groups. With data from Interstate 95 in Maryland, the Researchers found equal guilt rates for African-Americans and whites and conclude that the data is not consistent with racial prejudice against African-Americans.
But even if there is legitimate reason for African Americans and other minorities to be stopped more, we have to consider what happens during these stops? For Karen Brank in the Harris Reading, additional cops were called, and she was handcuffed and detained for a traffic ticket; something Brank was sure that if she was white, she would not have had to go through. This is not just just stories. In a recent Arizona case, it was proven that Hispanics, when stopped by police, were detailed 14 seconds longer on average.
Sources:
Shamena Anwar & Hanming Fang, 2006. "An Alternative Test of Racial Prejudice in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 127-151, March.
David A. Harris. Driving While Black and All Other Traffic Offenses: The Supreme Court and Pretextual Traffic Stops, 87 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 544 (1996-1997)
John Knowles & Nicola Persico & Petra Todd, 2001. "Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(1).
“Stop-and-Frisk Data.” Nyclu.org. New York Civil Liberties Union, 2013. Web. 10 Mar 2014.
David Schwartz. Judge Grills Arizona Sheriff's Aide in Racial Profiling Case. (2014, April 3) www.reuters.com.
But even if there is legitimate reason for African Americans and other minorities to be stopped more, we have to consider what happens during these stops? For Karen Brank in the Harris Reading, additional cops were called, and she was handcuffed and detained for a traffic ticket; something Brank was sure that if she was white, she would not have had to go through. This is not just just stories. In a recent Arizona case, it was proven that Hispanics, when stopped by police, were detailed 14 seconds longer on average.
Sources:
Shamena Anwar & Hanming Fang, 2006. "An Alternative Test of Racial Prejudice in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 127-151, March.
David A. Harris. Driving While Black and All Other Traffic Offenses: The Supreme Court and Pretextual Traffic Stops, 87 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 544 (1996-1997)
John Knowles & Nicola Persico & Petra Todd, 2001. "Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(1).
“Stop-and-Frisk Data.” Nyclu.org. New York Civil Liberties Union, 2013. Web. 10 Mar 2014.
David Schwartz. Judge Grills Arizona Sheriff's Aide in Racial Profiling Case. (2014, April 3) www.reuters.com.
Dear Tina,
ReplyDeleteThis is a rich blog entry, particularly given your introduction and application of "statistical" as distinct from "preference-based discrimination" to police vehicular stops. I do think there has been tremendous attention to "driving while black" by scholars, activists, the media and of course on a delayed basis, politicians. This attention has brought stops in line with identity groups use of our highways. But, as I will point out tomorrow, aggressive stops are another matter. Also, it is too simplistic to see this as racist cops engaging in preference-based policing, even though this is popular belief about what is going on.
Nice article, specially when you incorporate the research aspect of it. Racism is very socially constructed entity in our society. Researchers have been trying to prove that it is a constructed phenomena, that there is little to no biological difference between races to depicted one inferior or superior of one another.
ReplyDeleteIt has been so historically linked and has been passed down through generations that people, including the police, have not been able to reeducate themselves on the matter and thus the cycle of racial discrimination has not come to an end.
-Sureyma Gonzalez
The Harris reading also sheds some light on the deleterious effects of "Driving while Black" on African Americans. Not only does this nation-wide policy disproportionately affect minorities, but it also leads to other social problems, such as blacks not trusting policy or the criminalization of an entire race. And although the law is on the side of the police thanks to cases such as Whren v. United States, I think it is the application of these laws which should be put into question; if there is disparate impact on a certain race of people, perhaps we can question the constitutionality of pretext stop policies.
ReplyDelete- Jonathan Berry-Smith
In my blog entry there was an article that revealed that blacks were stopped more often in Oakland than any other race, even though they were no more likely to have an illegal possession than any other race. The Maynard-Moody and Musheno reading showed how street-level workers used "class, appearance, work affiliation, skink color, gender, and age" (21) when trying to get a fix on people in the first encounter. Unfortunately, as Jonathan states, this leads to serious distrust between minority citizens and policy or officers. And, as we have seen in our readings and through lectures, police departments are trying different approaches by being less aggressive when dealing with street-level work. However, when data shows that minorities continue to be profiled, it can seriously hinder any chance of building trust and establishing better relationships.
ReplyDelete-Dash Oliver
This blog reminds me of our first day in lecture because we were going over the story of Traffic Stop where a woman thought she was being pulled over because of racial profiling. Officers who get a fix on people based on different characteristics might be offensive to some people. But as you mentioned at the end of your blog, some people of a type of race might be pulled over and held longer than usual. This creates an atmosphere of racism because people who are not white tend to think that they are being pulled over for their race. As we discussed in lecture, when Anglo Americans are being pulled over they think about the speed limit, if their lights were on, etc. whereas other people think they are being pulled over for their race. This atmosphere of racism can cause damage to communities that have different ethnic backgrounds. It can also damage any type of community relations that the police have with the community.
ReplyDelete- Jordan Ho
I just wrote a long comment but the site glitched, so I'm just going to try and highlight some of my key points.
ReplyDeleteI like how you tied this post to the readins, very straight-forward. I also like the notion of racial profiling, because it reminds me of earlier discussions about extra-legal structures.
It seems as if a lot of people in this class have an interest in this topic, just judging by the amount of comments on these last few discussions.
Thank you for your post.
-Mark Sheppard
Thanks for sharing this, Tina. I must say that I agree with you when you said that even if minorities commit more infractions than white people statistically, that is not reason enough to commit race-based police stops. However, I still find it hard to find the sweet spot where we can say that the police are just being preemptive enough to stop crimes while not being aggressive enough to make it seem like they are obviously racially profiling people. I agree that the liberties and peace of mind of innocent people shouldbe protected, but statistics still back up the fact that minorities may commit more crimes. Figuring out if risking someone's liberty is a just price for potentially saving another's life is the question I believe most people are really hung up on.
ReplyDelete-Joe Lugue
Your blog post is very interesting and provides us very resourceful researches. Racial profiling is happening and it is a sensitive issue that would take time and energy in oder to reduce it. I believe that research that you provide or some others that may or may not published, will help a great deal in changing people's point of view and eventually may change officers' point of view too. Each person has their own beliefs, but with research and facts like this it might help to change their mind and hopefully make them realize that racial profiling is not helping in reducing crime.
ReplyDeleteWarinya Rojanasuwan
Very well written blog post. Racial profiling whether conducted during traffic stops or during stop and frisks continues to be a hot button issue with no clear solution in sight. I myself have an issue with the claim some make in saying that police conduct more stops and searches with minorities in a preemptive matter rather than a racially motived one. As exemplified in the school to prison pipeline phenomena, treat a group of people as criminals and what will result is criminal behavior. Excessive targeting of African American and other minorities for traffic stops as a means to prevent crime may very well produce more crime.
ReplyDeleteJose Estrada
Tina, thanks for shedding light on this phenomenon. This, along with many other racially discrimantory practices, reminds me that while we have come a long way from Jim Crow laws, we are still immersed in a society where our laws and legal practices are driven by racial differentiations and tensions. This reminds me of the discussion we had in class about the over-policing of many muslim communities in America. It also reminds me of other similar, emerging discriminatory practices like "Driving while Indian", where Native Americans are stopped and mandated to take breathalyzers. This is due to the socially constructed stereotype that Native Americans abuse alcohol more than any other race. Driving While Black is a real thing and I have experienced it myself. Lets just say that according to the police it is, for some reason, "abnormal" for a young black woman like myself to be driving a Mercedes, or even an Audi. On several occasions I have been stopped while driving my cars and been asked in a harassing manner if I came from a family of drug dealers. I can't give a a clear and definite reason for why this happens to black people while driving, but I can say that it probably has to do with the fact that historically, blacks and criminality have been intrinsically associated with one another through mainstream media outlets. Thanks for posting again.
ReplyDeleteTiarra Pittman