HOW DARK IS DARK? BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY, RACIAL PROFILING

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Horrace, William C.; Rohlin, Shawn M.
• 署名单位: Syracuse University; University System of Ohio; Kent State University; Kent State University Salem; Kent State University Kent
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00543
• 发表日期: 2016-05
• 页码: 226-232
• 关键词: motor-vehicle searches; BIAS

摘要

Grogger and Ridgeway (2006) use the daylight saving time shift to develop a police racial profiling test that is based on differences in driver race visibility and (hence) the race distribution of traffic stops across daylight and darkness. However, urban environments may be well lit at night, eroding the power of their test. We refine their test using streetlight location data in Syracuse, New York, and the results change in the direction of finding profiling of black drivers. Our preferred specification suggests that the odds of a black driver being stopped (relative to nonblack drivers) increase 15% in daylight compared to darkness.