The Impact of Race and Skin Color on Police Contact and Arrest

Results From a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Study

Bibliographic Data

ID2969944
AuthorsMichael Teneyck (0000-0002-5287-8224), Michael F Teneyck, A El Sayed (0000-0002-4048-2476), Clay M Driscoll, Clay Driscoll, Krysta N Knox (0000-0002-5049-4542)
Year2024
Publication date2024-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRace and Justice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2153-3687 • E-ISSN: 2153-3687
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/21533687231223720
OpenAlexW4390540710
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited64

Racial inequality in arrest is a social problem that has challenged the United States for as long as police records have been kept. Prior work documents the extent of the disparity and observational studies have attempted to sort out the mechanisms that explain why the disparity exists. Building on the "constructivist" perspective of race, the current study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to assess the degree to which race and skin color explain the observed racial disparity in criminal justice contact and arrest. Results revealed that controlling for criminal behavior and a host of covariates, neither race nor skin color increased the likelihood of police contact. Race, however, was predictive of an increase in the odds of arrest-with Black respondents being 92% more likely to experience arrest than White respondents-and this relationship remained controlling for the effects of skin color, police contact, and prior criminal behavior. These findings suggest that the "race effect" may be due to unobserved biases not related to skin color

Criminal justice · Criminology · Logistic regression · Observational study · Odds · Race (biology · Skin color · Sociology · White (mutation · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Demography · Gender Studies · Medicine · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Social Psychology

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