Racial characteristics of areas and police decisions to arrest in traffic stops: multilevel analysis of contextual racial effects
Policing: An International Journal
ISSN: 1363-951X
Article publication date: 29 January 2021
Issue publication date: 5 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The present study assesses the contextual racial effects on police decisions to arrest in traffic stops.
Design/methodology/approach
A hierarchical logistic regression model is conducted using data collected from the Houston Police Department and US census.
Findings
The authors’ multilevel analysis indicates that the racial effect on police decision to arrest is more likely to be contextual than individual. Black and Hispanic drivers have no significant difference from White drivers in police decisions to arrest when area variations are controlled. In contrast, the concentrations of Blacks and other racial minorities in areas are significantly associated with the chance of being arrested by police in traffic stops. However, as the level of racial diversity increases in an area, the chance of being arrested is likely to decrease.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates the importance of racial characteristics of areas in the study of racial profiling and related police practice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Drs. Larry Hoover and Steven Messner’s reviews of the initial version of this manuscript. The authors thank the Houston Police Department for providing the dataset for our study. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the agency.
Citation
Zhang, Y. and Zhang, L. (2021), "Racial characteristics of areas and police decisions to arrest in traffic stops: multilevel analysis of contextual racial effects", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 44 No. 5, pp. 772-785. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-11-2020-0176
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited