The effect of court-ordered hiring quotas on the composition and quality of police

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: McCrary, Justin
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.1.318
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 318-353
• 关键词: CIVIL-RIGHTS ACT; affirmative-action; TITLE-VII; EMPLOYMENT; IMPACT; LAW; ANTIDISCRIMINATION; DISCRIMINATION; ENFORCEMENT; wages

摘要

Arguably the most aggressive affirmative action program ever implemented in the United States was a series of court-ordered racial hiring quotas imposed on municipal police departments. My best estimate of the effect of court-ordered affirmative action on work-force composition is a 14-percentage-point gain in the fraction African American among newly hired officers. Evidence on police performance is mixed. Despite substantial black-white test score differences on police department entrance examinations, city crime rates appear unaffected by litigation. However, litigation lowers slightly both arrests per crime and the fraction black among serious arrestees.