A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States.
Black or African American
/ statistics & numerical data
Automobile Driving
/ statistics & numerical data
Female
Hispanic or Latino
/ statistics & numerical data
Humans
Male
Police
/ statistics & numerical data
Racism
/ statistics & numerical data
Time Factors
United States
White People
/ statistics & numerical data
Journal
Nature human behaviour
ISSN: 2397-3374
Titre abrégé: Nat Hum Behav
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101697750
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
07 2020
07 2020
Historique:
received:
23
08
2017
accepted:
13
03
2020
pubmed:
6
5
2020
medline:
11
11
2020
entrez:
6
5
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
We assessed racial disparities in policing in the United States by compiling and analysing a dataset detailing nearly 100 million traffic stops conducted across the country. We found that black drivers were less likely to be stopped after sunset, when a 'veil of darkness' masks one's race, suggesting bias in stop decisions. Furthermore, by examining the rate at which stopped drivers were searched and the likelihood that searches turned up contraband, we found evidence that the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was lower than that for searching white drivers. Finally, we found that legalization of recreational marijuana reduced the number of searches of white, black and Hispanic drivers-but the bar for searching black and Hispanic drivers was still lower than that for white drivers post-legalization. Our results indicate that police stops and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias and point to the value of policy interventions to mitigate these disparities.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32367028
doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-0858-1
pii: 10.1038/s41562-020-0858-1
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
736-745Références
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