Racial Disparity in Formal Social Control

Abstract

Prior research on racial disparities in arrest rates has been limited by an almost exclusive focus on two explanatory models, an inattention to the mediating processes identified in leading theories, and a relative neglect of nonindex crimes, for which police discretion is greater. This analysis contributes to research on race differences in social control by more comprehensively evaluating mediating factors in the racial threat and benign neglect models and by testing explanatory frameworks that link racial disparities to opportunities for bias that result from residential segregation and variations in police discretionary authority across crime types. Analyses of data from 136 cities reveal two key findings. First, an uneven distribution of Blacks and Whites is associated with higher arrest disparities for drug and weapons arrests, but not with violent or property crime arrest disparities. Second, there is little evidence in support of the venerable racial threat or benign neglect explanatory frameworks.

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