Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Additional Theory and Evidence

Dhammika Dharmapala and Stephen Ross

No 2003-12, Working papers from University of Connecticut, Department of Economics

Abstract: Knowles, Persico, and Todd (2001) develop a model of police search and offender behavior. Their model implies that if police are unprejudiced the rate of guilt should not vary across groups. Using data from Interstate 95 in Maryland, they find equal guilt rates for African-Americans and whites and conclude that the data is not consistent with racial prejudice against African-Americans. This paper generalizes the model of Knowles, Persico, and Todd by accounting for the fact that potential offenders are frequently not observed by the police and by including two different levels of offense severity. The paper shows that for African-American males the data is consistent with prejudice against African-American males, no prejudice, and reverse discrimination depending on the form of equilibria that exists in the economy. Additional analyses based on stratification by type of vehicle and time of day were conducted, but did not shed any light on the form of equilibria that best represents the situation in Maryland during the sample period.

Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2003-04, Revised 2003-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
Note: Acknowledgments: We would like to thank John Knowles and the Maryland ACLU for kindly providing the data.
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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https://media.economics.uconn.edu/working/2003-12R.pdf Full text, revised version (application/pdf)
https://media.economics.uconn.edu/working/2003-12.pdf Full text, original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Additional Theory and Evidence (2004)
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