Racial bias in police traffic stops: White residents' county-level prejudice and stereotypes are related to disproportionate stopping of Black drivers

Marleen Stelter; Iniobong Essien; Carsten Sander; Juliane Degner

doi:10.1177/09567976211051272

Racial bias in police traffic stops: White residents' county-level prejudice and stereotypes are related to disproportionate stopping of Black drivers

Marleen Stelter^*
, Iniobong Essien
, Carsten Sander
, Juliane Degner

^*Corresponding author for this work

Professorship of Social and Organisational Psychology of Social Work

Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

51 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Racial disparities in policing are well documented, but the reasons for such disparities are often debated. In the current research, we weighed in on this debate using a regional-level bias framework: We investigated the link between racial disparities in police traffic stops and regional-level racial bias, employing data from more than 130 million police traffic stops in 1,413 U.S. counties and county-level measures of racial bias from more than 2 million online respondents. Compared with their population share in county demographics, Black drivers were stopped at disproportionate rates in the majority of counties. Crucially, disproportionate stopping of Black drivers was higher in counties with higher levels of racial prejudice by White residents (rs = .07−.36). Furthermore, county-level aggregates of White people’s threat-related stereotypes were less consistent in predicting disproportionate stopping (rs = .00−.19). These observed relationships between regional-level bias and racial disparities in policing highlight the importance of the context in which police operate.

Original language	English
Journal	Psychological Science
Volume	33
Issue number	4
Pages (from-to)	483-496
Number of pages	14
ISSN	0956-7976
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211051272
Publication status	Published - 01.04.2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities

Research areas and keywords

Psychology
open data
open materials
police traffic stops
regional-level bias
systemic bias
prejudice
stereotypes

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Psychology(all)

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Racial Bias in Police Traffic Stops: White Residents’ County-Level Prejudice and Stereotypes Are Related to Disproportionate Stopping of Black Drivers
Stelter, M. (Creator), Essien, I. (Creator), Sander, C. (Creator) & Degner, J. (Creator), SAGE Publications Inc., 24.03.2022
DOI: 10.1177/09567976211051272, https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Racial_Bias_in_Police_Traffic_Stops_White_Residents_County-Level_Prejudice_and_Stereotypes_Are_Related_to_Disproportionate_Stopping_of_Black_Drivers/5913067/1 and 2 more links, https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Racial_Bias_in_Police_Traffic_Stops_White_Residents_County-Level_Prejudice_and_Stereotypes_Are_Related_to_Disproportionate_Stopping_of_Black_Drivers/5913067/2, https://sage.figshare.com/collections/Racial_Bias_in_Police_Traffic_Stops_White_Residents_County-Level_Prejudice_and_Stereotypes_Are_Related_to_Disproportionate_Stopping_of_Black_Drivers/5913067 (show fewer)
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abstract = "Racial disparities in policing are well documented, but the reasons for such disparities are often debated. In the current research, we weighed in on this debate using a regional-level bias framework: We investigated the link between racial disparities in police traffic stops and regional-level racial bias, employing data from more than 130 million police traffic stops in 1,413 U.S. counties and county-level measures of racial bias from more than 2 million online respondents. Compared with their population share in county demographics, Black drivers were stopped at disproportionate rates in the majority of counties. Crucially, disproportionate stopping of Black drivers was higher in counties with higher levels of racial prejudice by White residents (rs = .07−.36). Furthermore, county-level aggregates of White people{\textquoteright}s threat-related stereotypes were less consistent in predicting disproportionate stopping (rs = .00−.19). These observed relationships between regional-level bias and racial disparities in policing highlight the importance of the context in which police operate.",

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AU - Degner, Juliane

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.

PY - 2022/4/1

Y1 - 2022/4/1

N2 - Racial disparities in policing are well documented, but the reasons for such disparities are often debated. In the current research, we weighed in on this debate using a regional-level bias framework: We investigated the link between racial disparities in police traffic stops and regional-level racial bias, employing data from more than 130 million police traffic stops in 1,413 U.S. counties and county-level measures of racial bias from more than 2 million online respondents. Compared with their population share in county demographics, Black drivers were stopped at disproportionate rates in the majority of counties. Crucially, disproportionate stopping of Black drivers was higher in counties with higher levels of racial prejudice by White residents (rs = .07−.36). Furthermore, county-level aggregates of White people’s threat-related stereotypes were less consistent in predicting disproportionate stopping (rs = .00−.19). These observed relationships between regional-level bias and racial disparities in policing highlight the importance of the context in which police operate.

AB - Racial disparities in policing are well documented, but the reasons for such disparities are often debated. In the current research, we weighed in on this debate using a regional-level bias framework: We investigated the link between racial disparities in police traffic stops and regional-level racial bias, employing data from more than 130 million police traffic stops in 1,413 U.S. counties and county-level measures of racial bias from more than 2 million online respondents. Compared with their population share in county demographics, Black drivers were stopped at disproportionate rates in the majority of counties. Crucially, disproportionate stopping of Black drivers was higher in counties with higher levels of racial prejudice by White residents (rs = .07−.36). Furthermore, county-level aggregates of White people’s threat-related stereotypes were less consistent in predicting disproportionate stopping (rs = .00−.19). These observed relationships between regional-level bias and racial disparities in policing highlight the importance of the context in which police operate.

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KW - open data

KW - open materials

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KW - regional-level bias

KW - systemic bias

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KW - stereotypes

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Racial bias in police traffic stops: White residents' county-level prejudice and stereotypes are related to disproportionate stopping of Black drivers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Research areas and keywords

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Access to Document

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Racial Bias in Police Traffic Stops: White Residents’ County-Level Prejudice and Stereotypes Are Related to Disproportionate Stopping of Black Drivers

Cite this