Document Type
Article
Source Publication Title
Race and Justice
DOI
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21533687231223720
Abstract
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.
Publication Date
1-2-2024
Language
English
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
TenEyck, Michael F.; El Sayed, Sarah A.; Driscoll, Clay M.; and Knox, Krysta N., "The Impact of Race and Skin Color on Police Contact and Arrest: Results From a Nationally Representative Longitudinal Study" (2024). SAGE Open Access Agreement Publications-Archive. 37.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/utalibraries_sageoapubs/37