Detecting racial bias in speed discounting: Evidence from speeding tickets in Boston

Nejat Anbarci () and Jungmin Lee

International Review of Law and Economics, 2014, vol. 38, issue C, 11-24

Abstract: We focus on a particular kind of discretionary behavior on the part of traffic officers when issuing speeding tickets – what we term speed discounting. It is anecdotally said that officers often give motorists a break by reporting a lower speed on their citation than the actual speed that they observe the vehicle doing. Verifying the level of police discretion in the speed discounting behavior and ascertaining the presence of racial bias among police officers are the main objectives of this paper. Using a unique dataset that contains the race of the officer and of the motorist and cited vehicle speed, we apply the rank order test and the difference-in-differences method to detect racial prejudice in the speed discounting behavior.

Keywords: Police discretion; Racial bias; Speeding tickets; Speed discounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J70 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:irlaec:v:38:y:2014:i:c:p:11-24

DOI: 10.1016/j.irle.2014.02.002

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