Arrest Disparities Research Articles

The social foundations of racial inequalities in arrest over the life course and in changing times

AbstractAlthough racial disparities in criminal justice contact are long‐standing and the subject of continuing public debate, few studies have linked early‐life social conditions to racial disparities in arrest over the life course and in changing times. In this article, we advance and test a theoretical model of racial inequality in long‐term arrest histories on a representative sample of nearly 1,000 individuals from multiple birth cohorts in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Large Black–White disparities in arrests from ages 10 to 40 arise from racial inequalities in exposure to cumulative childhood advantages and disadvantages rather than from race‐specific effects. Smaller but meaningful Hispanic–White gaps follow a similar pattern, and the same explanations of racial disparities hold across different offense types and across birth cohorts who came of age at different times during 1995 to 2021. These findings indicate that inequalities in early‐life structural factors, which themselves are historically shaped, trigger processes of cumulative advantage and disadvantage that produce racial disparities in arrests over the life course and that persist across different points in contemporary history.

Abstract 267: Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status Influences Rates of Pre-EMS Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation

Introduction: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a leading cause of both morbidity and mortality in the United States and globally. After cardiac arrest onset, emergency medical services (EMS) might not arrive before irreversible injury takes place. Thus, pre-EMS resuscitation - including CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) use - is associated with improvements in outcomes. We sought to determine if rates of pre-EMS CPR and pre-EMS AED use vary across neighborhood socioeconomic status using a database of EMS activations throughout the United States. Methods: The National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) is a large and nationally-representative database of EMS activations populated from more than ten-thousand EMS agencies throughout the US. We examined cardiac arrests in adult patients (18+ years of age) between January 2017 and December 2019 where EMS providers documented the ZIP code of the arrest, whether CPR prior to EMS arrival was provided, and whether an AED was applied prior to EMS arrival. The ZIP code of the arrest was used to group arrests based on socioeconomic status data from the US Census Bureau. Rates of pre-EMS CPR and pre-EMS AED use were then compared, and ZIP codes with under 5% of residents below the poverty line served as benchmarks. Results: 366,280 cardiac arrests met inclusion criteria. Both Pre-EMS CPR and pre-EMS AED use were highest in ZIP Codes where less than 5% of the population is below the poverty line (p< .00001). Furthermore, a consistent decrease in rates of pre-EMS interventions was seen as the percent of individuals below the poverty line increased (Figure 1). Conclusion: We found a strong relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic status and pre-EMS cardiac arrest interventions. One explanation may be access to CPR training. Further studies should continue to interrogate cardiac arrest disparities that have already been reported and seek to identify new unreported disparities as well.

Abstract 406: Texas Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Disparities for Rural Patient Care From Statewide Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Data Registry - The Texas Cares Project

Introduction: Out-of-hospital cardiac (OHCA) arrest victims from rural settings suffer worse outcomes. We evaluated the association between rural setting and post-arrest care and outcomes. Hypothesis: Receiving treatment for OHCA at a rural hospital will be associated with a lower rate of post OHCA care and lower rate of favorable neurologic outcomes (cerebral performance score 1 or 2). Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of the Texas Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) from 2014-2021. We included adult OHCAs not listed as DNR. We defined hospital urbanicity as the proportion of OHCAs originating from rural census tracts. We defined hospitals as rural if more than 25% of included OHCAs were rural. We evaluated the association between rural hospital status and patient and prehospital care characteristics - age, race, initial rhythm, response time, bystander CPR - and hospital care characteristics - targeted temperature management (TTM) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) rates. We evaluated the association between rural hospital status and favorable neurological outcomes with logistic regression, adjusted for patient and prehospital factors, hospital care, and census tract median household income. Results: We included 31,569 encounters with OHCA at 161 unique hospitals. The rural hospital group included 1,213 OHCA encounters (3.8%) at 25 hospitals (15.5%). Patient factors between groups were similar other than a higher rate of white patients in the rural group. Rates of angiography (16.1% non rural, 17.1% rural), PCI (8.2%, 8.7%), and TTM (30.6%,34.7%) were not statistically different. Treatment at rural hospitals was not associated with a statistically significant decreased odds of good neurological outcome (aOR 1.02, 95%ci 0.83-1.24). Conclusion: Treatment for OHCA at rural hospitals was not associated with a lower rate of post OHCA care or lower rate of favorable neurologic outcome

Racial Arrest Disparities in the USA by Rural-Urban Location and Region.

Urban racial arrest disparities are well known. Emerging evidence suggests that rural policing shares similar patterns as urban policing in the USA, but without receiving the same public scrutiny, raising the risk of biased rural policing going unnoticed. We estimated adult and adolescent arrest rates and rate ratios (RR) by race, rural-urban status, and US region based on 2016 Uniform Crime Reporting Program arrest and US Census population counts using general estimating equation Poisson regression models with a 4-way interaction between race, region, age group, and urbanicity. With few exceptions, arrest rates were highest in small towns and rural areas, especially among Black and American Indian populations. Arrest rates differed between US regions with highest rates and racial disparities in the Midwest. For example, arrest rates among Black adults in the rural Midwest were 148.6 arrests [per 1000 population], 95% CI131.4-168.0, versus 94.4 arrests, 95% CI 77.2-115.4 in the urban Midwest; and versus corresponding rural Midwest arrests among white adults, 32.7 arrests, 95% CI 30.8-34.8, Black versus white rural RR 4.54, 95% CI 4.09-5.04. Racial arrest disparities in the South were lower but still high, e.g., rural South, Black versus White adults, RR 1.86, 95% CI 1.71-2.03. Rural areas and small towns are potential hotspots of racial arrest disparities across the USA, especially in the Midwest. Approaches to overcoming structural racism in policing must include strategies targeted at rural/small town communities. Our findings underscore the importance of dismantling racist policing in all US communities.

Disparities in Youth Arrest Across Racial and Ethnic Subgroups

An extensive body of research suggests that youth of color are more likely to experience an arrest than their White counterparts. Theoretically, these findings have been understood, at least in part, as the result of the differential deployment of law enforcement to areas with higher Black and Hispanic concentrations as well as stereotyped attributions of dangerousness and threat implicitly assigned to these suspects by police before and during encounters. However, previous studies typically have employed conventional racial/ethnic categorizations, which might obscure potential nuances in arrest disparities across subgroups. Using data on a statewide representative sample of adolescents from the 2018 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey ( N = 54,611), these analyses reveal that the likelihood of a self-reported arrest is greatest among Haitian, West Indian/Caribbean, Dominican, and non-Hispanic Black youth. Further, Mexican and Puerto Rican adolescents have a higher risk of experiencing an arrest than members of other Hispanic subgroups.

A tale of two cities: Racialized arrests following decriminalization and recreational legalization of cannabis

BackgroundIn the U.S., “War on Drugs” policies have led to large and unequal increases in arrests among particularly of Black/African American men. The change in the legal status of cannabis may reduce the racial disparity in arrests. We examined the impact of changing legal status on arrest disparities. MethodsWe obtained publicly available deidentified cannabis arrest data from the District of Columbia (D.C.) Metropolitan Police Department (2012–2019) and Los Angeles (L.A.) Police Department (2010–2019). We examined the differences in average monthly cannabis arrest rates for each city and each outcome (possession, possession with intent to distribute, distribution, and public consumption) across racial groups. ResultsFor both D.C. and L.A. following changes in the legal status of cannabis, we saw a decrease of the absolute disparity in possession-related arrests. There was also a reduction in D.C. for the relative disparity, but there was an increase in the relative disparity in L.A. In both cities, there was an emergence of public consumption-arrests. In D.C., there was an absolute increase of 4.0 (SD=2.5) more arrests per-month for Black people than white people and a relative increase of 9.1 (SD=1.5). In L.A., absolute disparity of 0.6(SD=1.3) and a relative disparity of 6.7 (SD=2.0). ConclusionsThere was a reduction in the absolute arrest disparity for cannabis-related possession arrests following decriminalization and legalization in both D.C and L.A. However, we saw the emergence of arrests for public consumption. This emergence of possession arrests towards public consumptions arrests, underscores the need to examine arrests beyond possession.

Abstract 15609: Neighborhood Socioeconomic Disparities in Infant Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Introduction: More than half of all pediatric cardiac arrests involve children under 1 year of age, and intervention prior to the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) is crucial to prevent irreversible injury in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Hypothesis: Given other cardiac arrest disparities, we hypothesize that pre-EMS CPR and outcomes for infant cardiac arrest differ across community socioeconomic status. Methods: We examined cardiac arrests in 2019 involving patients under 1 year of age contained within a nationally-representative EMS database in the United States (NEMSIS). Data collected included if pre-EMS CPR was performed, if return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) was achieved, and the ZIP Code where the arrest took place. We grouped arrests based on the socioeconomic characteristics of the ZIP Code where the arrest took place. This allowed us to examine whether rates of pre-EMS CPR and ROSC varied according to community-level poverty. Results: A total of 3776 pediatric cardiac arrests met inclusion criteria (Table). Within the total sample, the overall pre-EMS CPR rate was 71.2%, and the overall ROSC achievement rate was 16.6%. Pre-EMS CPR and ROSC achievement were highest in communities where less than 5% of individuals were below the poverty line and were significantly lower in communities where more than 16% of individuals within a ZIP Code were below the poverty line (p<.05). Conclusions: Our data show that two important predictors of cardiac arrest survival - Pre-EMS CPR and ROSC achievement - decline significantly as the percentage of individuals below the poverty line increase. Disparities across socioeconomic status may reflect decreased CPR awareness, underperforming systems of prehospital care, or worse infant baseline health statuses. Public health efforts aimed at infant cardiac arrest may see the most benefit when focusing on socioeconomically-disadvantaged communities.

Association of Racial Disparity of Cannabis Possession Arrests Among Adults and Youths With Statewide Cannabis Decriminalization and Legalization

Despite calls for cannabis decriminalization and legalization, research investigating the association of policy with arrest rates and racial disparities is scarce. To examine racial differences in cannabis arrest rates among adults and youths after statewide decriminalization, legalization, and no policy changes. This case-control study used race-based arrest data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results county-level population data from January 2000 through December 2019. Data were analyzed in July 2021. Event-study analyses based on the arrest rates from 43 US states were conducted to compare preimplementation and postimplementation differences in arrest rates for states with decriminalization, legalization, and no policy changes. Nine states implemented legalization, 8 implemented decriminalization, and 26 had no policy change. Outcome measures were cannabis arrest rates for Black and White adults and youths per year and by state, while controlling for several covariates. Rates were reported per 100 000. When comparing absolute differences in arrests from January to December 2008 (before policy changes) to January to December 2019, legalization was associated with 561 and 195 fewer arrests and decriminalization with 448.6 and 117.1 fewer arrests for Black and White adults, respectively. States without a policy change saw reductions of 47.5 and 33.0 arrests for Black and White adults, respectively. Among youth, legalization was associated with 131.1 and 131.2 fewer arrests and decriminalization with 156.1 and 124.7 fewer arrests for Black and White youths, respectively. Among states without a policy change, arrests reduced by 35 and 52.4 for Black and White youths, respectively. Plotted trends of the arrest ratios from January 2000 through December 2019 suggests racial disparities remained over time. Event-study analyses suggest that decriminalization was associated with an arrest rate reduction for Black and White adults and youths. The timing of reductions suggests differential policy effects. Arrest disparities increased in states that did not have a cannabis policy change. In this case-control study of states with and without cannabis decriminalization and legalization policies, increased arrest rate disparities in states without either policy highlight the need for targeted interventions to address racial injustice.

What If They Were White? The Differential Arrest Consequences of Victim Characteristics for Black and White Co-offenders.

A substantial body of research focuses on racial disparity in the criminal justice system, with mixed results due to difficulty in disentangling differential offending from racial bias. Additionally, some research has demonstrated that victim characteristics can exacerbate racial disparity in outcomes for offenders, but little research has focused on the arrest stage. We use a quasi-experimental approach that examines incidents involving co-offending pairs to isolate the influence of offender race on arrest, beyond any characteristics of the incident itself, and we test for moderating effects of victim race and sex on racial disparities in arrest. Our findings reveal that, on average, when two offenders of different races commit the same offense together against the same victim, Black offenders are significantly more likely to be arrested than their White co-offending partners, especially for assault offenses. More importantly, this effect-for both assaults and homicides-is particularly strong when the victim is a White woman. Because these differences are between two offenders who commit the same offense together, we argue that the most plausible explanation for the differences is the presence of racial bias or discrimination.

Reported Sexual-offense Incidents in the United States: Arrest Disparities between Women and Men.

This study examined the effect of an offender's sex (male/female) on whether sexual-offense incidents reported to law enforcement culminated in an arrest. Two hypotheses, chivalry and evil woman, are relied upon and suggest that the probability of arrest differs for women and men, yet in differing directions. The chivalry hypothesis suggests women are treated more leniently than men and, therefore, less likely to be arrested. The evil woman hypothesis, however, suggests the opposite: Women are treated more harshly than men and, therefore, more likely to be arrested. Seven years of National Incident-based Reporting System [NIBRS] data were relied upon (National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, 2010-2016, National Incident-based Reporting System: Extract Files); all of the reported sexual-offense incidents committed by women were included, along with a matched sample of reported sexual-offense incidents committed by men, culminating in a sample of 22,744. Overall, women were 42% significantly less likely than men to be arrested when controlling for other known offense, offender, and victim characteristics. The odds for women to be arrested increased, however, when specific offender demographics, offense characteristics, and victim characteristics were taken into account. The implications of these findings are discussed in regard to their application of the chivalry and evil woman hypotheses.

Using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to examine racial and ethnic disparities in cannabis incidents

ABSTRACT Background: Reducing racial and ethnic arrest disparities is one driver of cannabis legalization in the US., but outcomes of cannabis policies and equity provisions remain unknown. Early research finds legalization reduces total cannabis incidents, but disparities persist. In response, novel research approaches are emerging, but a comprehensive assessment of their strengths and limitations is needed, particularly when using data sources developed for other purposes. Objectives: This perspective assesses the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), originally developed for crime statistics, as a means to surveil cannabis incident disparities. Methods: Massachusetts NIBRS (2000–2013) illustrates discussion points, including around sample inclusion, data integrity, and missing data. Results: We find that NIBRS is a comprehensive source for state-level monitoring if used with knowledge of its limitations. However, drawing conclusions about disparities requires careful assessment of sample inclusion and any changes to participation rates, data integrity, reporting changes, and missing variables, before analysis and reporting. Conclusion: NIBRS utility would increase with greater or required jurisdiction participation, guidance for collection of racial and ethnic data, and required ethnicity reporting. Despite limitations, cannabis disparity analyses using NIBRS can provide key insights for increasing equity in states considering and enacting cannabis legalization.

Revisiting Neighborhood Context and Racial Disparities in Drug Arrests Under the Opioid Epidemic

As opioid addiction has risen in recent years, racial disparities in drug arrests may be changing in their size and sources. Neighborhood conditions, like economic disadvantage and racial composition, are powerful determinants of racial differences in arrests. Overdoses and police responses to these incidents may, however, alter the neighborhood context of drug arrests, especially those tied to heroin, synthetic narcotics, and related opium derivatives offenses. This study revisits the environmental correlates of arrest disparities by conducting a neighborhood-level analysis of Black–White differences in drug possession and selling arrests by substance type across the State of Delaware. Spatial model estimates suggest economic disadvantage and racial diversity in neighborhoods substantially increase Black arrest rates. Conversely, White arrest rates grow with more calls for service for overdose incidents, racial homogeneity, and to a lesser extent, economic disadvantage within a community. Disparities in arrest also vary by substance type, as heroin arrests for Whites are most correlated with higher overdose service calls relative to White arrests for marijuana, cocaine, and other substances or Black arrests for any substance. Results underscore the need to reexamine neighborhood conditions and arrest disparities due to emerging shifts in drug use and drug law enforcement.

The Interaction of Race and Gender as a Significant Driver of Racial Arrest Disparities for African American Men.

The mass incarceration of African Americans is both a driver of racial health inequalities in the USA. Systemic social biases which associate African American men with criminality, violence, and as a particular threat to white women may partially explain their over-representation in the criminal justice system. We combined data from the Washington, DC Metro Police Department (MPD) and the American Community Survey to test whether neighborhood-level gender, race, and economic makeup were associated with elevated drug-related arrest disproportions for African American men. We found that African American men were significantly overrepresented in all drug-related arrests across the District, and that this arrest disproportion was significantly higher in neighborhoods that had a higher percentage of white female residents. The association between race and gender was somewhat attenuated, but not completely eliminated, when we introduced socio-economic variables to our model. Addressing the social determinants of criminal justice disparities must account for the intersection of race, gender, and economics, rather than considering race in isolation.

Coloring the War on Drugs: Arrest Disparities in Black, Brown, and White

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) data, this study examines racial disparities in arrests for drug offending. Of the total 8984 NLSY97 participants, the study sample was restricted to the 4868 respondents who had ever reported using drugs (black = 1191, Hispanic = 980, white = 2697). The study questions are as follows: (1) Are there racial disparities in arrests for drug use, after controlling for incidence of drug use as well as other socio-demographic variables? (2) Are there racial disparities in arrests for drug dealing, after controlling for incidence of drug dealing as well as other socio-demographic variables? Compared with whites, blacks were more likely to be arrested for drug offending, even after controlling for incidence and other socio-demographic variables. Several socio-demographic variables, particularly gender, were also associated with arrests for drug offending. Bans on racial profiling and other legislative and policy changes are considered as potential strategies to ameliorate drug enforcement disparities.

Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Arrest: The Role of Individual, Home, School, and Community Characteristics.

Contact with the justice system can lead to a range of poor health and social outcomes. While persons of color are disproportionately represented in both the juvenile and criminal justice systems, reasons for these patters remain unclear. This study sought to examine the extent and sources of differences in arrests during adolescence and young adulthood among blacks, whites, and Hispanics in the USA. Multilevel cross-sectional logistic regression analyses were conducted using data from waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 12,752 respondents). Results showed significantly higher likelihood of having ever been arrested among blacks, when compared to whites, even after controlling for a range of delinquent behaviors (odds ratio = 1.58, 95 % confidence interval = 1.27, 1.95). These black-white disparities were no longer present after accounting for racial composition of the neighborhood, supporting the growing body of research demonstrating the importance of contextual variables in driving disproportionate minority contact with the justice system.

Same-Sex and Race-Based Disparities in Statutory Rape Arrests.

This study tests a liberation hypothesis for statutory rape incidents, specifically that there may be same-sex and race/ethnicity arrest disparities among statutory rape incidents and that these will be greater among statutory rape than among forcible sex crime incidents. 26,726 reported incidents of statutory rape as defined under state statutes and 96,474 forcible sex crime incidents were extracted from National Incident-Based Reporting System data sets. Arrest outcomes were tested using multilevel modeling. Same-sex statutory rape pairings were rare but had much higher arrest odds. A victim-offender romantic relationship amplified arrest odds for same-sex pairings, but damped arrest odds for male-on-female pairings. Same-sex disparities were larger among statutory than among forcible incidents. Female-on-male incidents had uniformly lower arrest odds. Race/ethnicity effects were smaller than gender effects and more complexly patterned. The findings support the liberation hypothesis for same-sex statutory rape arrest disparities, particularly among same-sex romantic pairings. Support for race/ethnicity-based arrest disparities was limited and mixed.

The Social, Psychological, and Political Causes of Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System

Abstract Imprisonment rates for black Americans have long been five to seven times higher than those for whites. The immediate causes are well known: high levels of black imprisonment resulting in part from higher black than white arrest rates for violent crime and vastly higher black drug arrest rates. Drug arrest disparities result from police decisions to concentrate attention on drugs blacks sell and places where they sell them. Prison disparities are aggravated by laws prescribing sentences of unprecedented severity for offenses for which blacks are disproportionately arrested. Those practices and policies were shaped by distinctive sociological, psychological, and political features of American race relations. Work on the psychology of American race relations shows that many white Americans resent efforts made to help black Americans overcome the legacy of racism; that stereotypes of black criminality support whites’ attitudes toward drug and crime control policy; and that statistical discrimination...

IS THE WAR ON DRUGS RACIALLY BIASED?

ABSTRACT The War on Drugs (WoD) popularized aggressive law enforcement tactics and punitive sanctions aimed at low-level drug offenders. These punitive practices have affected Americans of all races; however, African-Americans, in particular, have been affected. This article examines whether racial disparities in arrest and incarceration can be explained by racial differences in drug offending. The evidence indicates that African-Americans are no more likely to use or sell drugs than whites; thus, racial differences in the extent of drug offending cannot explain these disparities. Disparities in arrest and incarceration are better explained by the combination of the policy decision to focus on low-level drug offenders, racial differences in the nature of drug offending, and the discretionary decisions of criminal justice officials, which appear to be affected by racial stereotypes of drug offenders.

Racial Disparity in Formal Social Control

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.

The neighborhood context of racial and ethnic disparities in arrest

This study assesses the role of social context in explaining racial and ethnic disparities in arrest, with afocus on how distinct neighborhood contexts in which different racial and ethnic groups reside explain variations in criminal outcomes. To do so, I utilize a multilevel, longitudinal research design, combining individual-level data with contextual data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). Findings reveal that black youths face multiple layers of disadvantage relative to other racial and ethnic groups, and these layers work to create differences in arrest. At the family level, results show that disadvantages in the form of unstable family structures explain much of the disparities in arrest across race and ethnicity. At the neighborhood level, black youths tend to reside in areas with both significantly higher levels of concentrated poverty than other youths as well as lower levels of collective efficacy than white youths. Variations in neighborhood tolerance of deviance across groups explain little of the arrest disparities, yet tolerance of deviance does influence the frequency with which a crime ultimately ends in an arrest. Even after accounting for relevant demographic, family, and neighborhood-level predictors, substantial residual arrest differences remain between black youths and youths of other racial and ethnic groups.