Three Competing Hypotheses on Racial/Ethnic Differences in Police Contact among Homeless Youth

• In Event: Contemporary Issues in Disproportionate Minority Contact

Abstract

Homeless youth are at an increased risk of police contact—both being stopped by police and arrested. It is less clear, however, if this increased risk of police interactions varies by race/ethnicity. Research supports three possible effects of race/ethnicity on the risk of police interaction among homeless youth. First, as work on disproportionate minority contact illustrates, racial/ethnic bias among law enforcement offers may lead to increased attention to minority homeless youth, and thus increased justice contact. Second, homelessness may act as a master status superseding all other statuses (including race/ethnicity), thus minimizing (and perhaps equalizing) differences in police interactions across racial/ethnic groups. Third, the notion of “out of place policing” suggests that police contact is more likely among persons occupying spaces in which they are not typically found (or thought to be found); as such, white homeless youth may actually garner more police attention (and thus more contact) than their minority counterparts. We use data from The Midwest Longitudinal Study of Homeless Adolescents to examine competing hypotheses—as motivated by these three perspectives—regarding racial/ethnic differences in police contact among homeless youth, distinguishing between contact and actual arrest, and accounting for differences in time spent on the street.

Authors

• Jerreed D. Ivanich, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Tara Warner, University of Nebraska - Lincoln