Abstract

Neighborhood racial composition contributes to racial disparities in arrests, but prior research has almost exclusively focused on the magnitude of a minority population with somewhat mixed findings. We investigate whether racial disparities in arrests perpetuate when the racial composition reaches a particular threshold to assess whether the accumulation of race matters, and to what degree. To expand upon prior research, we include a range of part 2 crimes—public drunkenness, drug offenses, and disorderly conduct—“lower level” crimes which may allow for greater police discretion. We conduct negative binomial regression analyses using arrest data from a mid-sized city in the South between 2010 and 2015. Results show evidence of a threshold effect, but this pattern differs across race and crime type. This suggests that race-specific arrest rates may be driven by offense type and neighborhood racial composition.

摘要

邻里种族构成导致逮捕中的种族差异，但之前的研究几乎完全集中在少数群体的数量上，结果有些混杂。我们调查当种族构成达到特定阈值时，逮捕中的种族差异是否会持续存在，以评估种族积累是否重要，以及在何种程度上。为了扩展先前的研究，我们将第 2 部分中的一系列犯罪——公共场所醉酒、毒品犯罪和扰乱治安——“较低级别”的犯罪纳入其中，这可能允许警方拥有更大的自由裁量权。我们使用 2010 年至 2015 年间南部一个中等城市的逮捕数据进行负二项式回归分析。结果显示了阈值效应的证据，但这种模式因种族和犯罪类型而异。