The Issue of Racial Profiling in Traffic Stop Citations

Vito, Anthony G.; Grossi, Elizabeth L.; Higgins, George E.

doi:10.1177/1043986217724537

Cited by 50 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…The study by Vito et al (2017) found that traffic stops with Black drivers were less likely to generate citations compared to that of other races, but the researchers suggested that this could be explained because officers believed Blacks were involved in more serious crimes. According to Voigt et al (2017), police officer's utterances spoken to White community members during vehicle stops were consistently more respectful, but not more formal, than those directed at Black individuals, even after controlling for contextual factors such as the severity of the offense or the outcome of the stop.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Prejudice and Police Stops: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature

Carvalho

Mizael

Sampaio

2021

Behav Analysis Practice

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A police stop must be based on founded suspicion, an officer's ability to correctly discriminate suspicious behavior. However, police stops can be influenced by negative attitudes towards Black individuals. We conducted a systematic review of empirical articles published from 2014 until 2019 that investigated the relationship between racial prejudice and police stops on PsycInfo, using keywords such as "race", "ethnic", "police stop", "traffic stop", and "stop and frisk". Results included 16 studies conducted in the United States (US), England, Wales, and the Netherlands, and showed that: Black men were the most frequent targets of police stops; many individuals who have been stopped by the police reported negative perceptions of the police force; the Stop, Question, and Frisk strategy used by some US police departments proved to be a type of stop that favors racial selectivity; and that traffic stops were favorable environments for racially biased actions by officers. We conclude that institutional racism in police stops proves to be a problem shared by several countries, including Brazil. We suggest more investigations to characterize institutional racism in the police force and in other settings and interventions aimed at reducing individual biases and collective racist practices.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Prejudice and Police Stops: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature

Carvalho

Mizael

Sampaio

2021

Behav Analysis Practice

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“…Prior research in the racial profiling literature regarding police decision making and traffic stops has shown the utility of applying focal concerns theory (Higgins et al 2012;Vito et al 2017Vito et al , 2018Vito et al , 2019. This study seeks to advance upon prior work on stop and frisk using focal concerns theory to explain officers' decision making and use propensity score matching for the statistical analysis.…”

Section: Focal Concerns Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Police Stop and Frisk and the Impact of Race: A Focal Concerns Theory Approach

2021

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The findings of this study outline the racial differences in stop and frisk decisions by Illinois officers in consent searches and those based upon reasonable suspicion within the context of the elements of focal concerns theory. The analysis for this study was performed using propensity score matching (PSM) and allowed the researchers to create a quasi-experimental design to examine the race of the citizen and police decision making. According to our analysis of official Illinois law enforcement data, Black citizens, particularly males, were less likely to give their consent to a stop and frisk search. Black male citizens were also more likely to be stopped and searched due to an assessment of reasonable suspicion by the officer. Elements of focal concerns theory were also factors in pedestrian stops under conditions of consent and reasonable suspicion. Citizens judged as blameworthy were more likely to be stopped and frisked under conditions of consent and reasonable suspicion. The effect of a verbal threat and the officer’s prior knowledge about the citizen had even more significant impacts.

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“…A prevailing argument is that female suspects receive leniency by the criminal justice system due to chivalry and gender stereotypes of women as less dangerous (Steffensmeier, 1980 ; Visher, 1983 ). Due to these perceptions, officers may show female suspects leniency during incidents such as traffic stops (Tillyer & Engel, 2013 ); yet other evidence suggests gender does not affect police decision-making (Vito et al, 2017 ). These findings are in line with a focal concerns framework.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Extralegal and Community Factors on Police Officers’ Decision to Book Arrests for Minor Offenses

Crum

Ramey

2022

Am J Crim Just

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Booked arrests carry greater harms than non-booked arrests. When booked following an arrest, individuals are confined without guilt and an official criminal record forms that carries several negative consequences. Even with these greater harms, police decision to book arrests is understudied with little research on what factors influence this decision. This study utilizes official booking data to determine if suspect extralegal and community factors affect officers’ decisions to book arrests across minor offenses. The study uses data from the Chandler Police Department in Arizona and the American Community Survey from 2013 to 2019. These data include suspect legal/extralegal, officer, time, and block-group level factors. Using a cross-classified modeling approach, we examine factors associated with booking arrests across five offenses (cannabis possession, drug paraphernalia, shoplifting, criminal damage, and non-DUI-traffic). Results suggest that legal factors, particularly felony charges, are associated with higher odds of booking after arrest. However, we also demonstrate how extralegal factors significantly impact police decision to book arrests. Native Americans, Blacks, older individuals, and those with prior records had higher odds of booked arrests. While the odds of booked arrest varied across officers and communities, few officer or community factors were related to the decision to book arrests. Results suggest extralegal factors remain significant across minor offenses. These findings highlight the need to examine disparities on police post-arrest outcomes, expand racial categories studied, and incorporate less utilized variables like prior record. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12103-022-09669-6.

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The Issue of Racial Profiling in Traffic Stop Citations

Cited by 50 publications

References 82 publications

Racial Prejudice and Police Stops: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature

Racial Prejudice and Police Stops: A Systematic Review of the Empirical Literature

Police Stop and Frisk and the Impact of Race: A Focal Concerns Theory Approach

Impact of Extralegal and Community Factors on Police Officers’ Decision to Book Arrests for Minor Offenses

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