Biasing Influences on Drug Arrest Records: Implications for Deviance Research

Abstract

Despite repeated demonstrations that a variety of factors bias official records, such records are widely used in deviance research. The crucial issue relating to such use is whether biasing factors are random (tending to cancel each other out) or systematic (reducing validity for research to unacceptable degrees). Deviance statistics are generated in contexts whose numerous biasing factors can distort the occurrence rates of deviant acts. This study examines the influence of such factors on drug arrest records in Chicago. Three decades of arrests were studied and related to findings from extensive field research in the Narcotics Division of the Chicago Police. Drug arrest statistics for both whites and nonwhites revealed distinct trends and distributions over time and space. These patterns reflect systematic biases in the operations of police assigned to the Narcotics Division. These and other such biases argue that we ought not to rely on indices of drug activity derived from arrest records.

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