Proactive or Predetermined?: An Ecological Examination of Stop and Frisk in New York City

• In Event: Spatial Analysis of Racial Disparity in Stops, Arrest, and Crime in Big Cities

Abstract

Despite repeated assurances by criminal justice officials of the “color-blindness” of their institutional policies, communities of color are disproportionately policed, even when taking into account race and ethnic group crime involvement and the geographic distribution of crime. In order to better understand the social and institutional mechanisms leading to these disparities, we must untangle the often convoluted relationships between race, space, and police decision making. This study approaches the problem through an investigation of New York City’s contemporary proactive “stop-and-frisk” policing approach. Building on prior research analyzing the influence of suspect characteristics on police discretion, the effect of neighborhood characteristics on policing outcomes, and the criminalization of race and space, this analysis examines how variation in neighborhood traits shape the reasons that officers provide for stopping suspects.

Author

• Rachel Lautenschlager, University of Miami