4 ms·

The data[0] shows that the race distribution of the assailant in crime reports is about the same as the race distribution of arrestees. There's no support for t

• ucaetano 9y ago
  > The data[0] shows that the race distribution of the assailant in crime reports is about the same as the race distribution of arrestees. There's no support for the differential enforcement hypothesis. Unless the reports are also influenced by race, such as a police officer not stopping a white person who was a criminal because he/she is white, but over-inspecting non-white people.
  • tschwimmer 9y ago
    Incidentally "Driving While Black" is a fairly well-known phenomenon.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_while_black https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_while_black
    • ucaetano 9y ago
      Exactly. Let's say cops stop 10% of blacks for "looking suspicious" (aka, being black), but only 1% of whites. Now say that 10% of both whites and blacks are criminals. And they always get identified if stopped, and eventually arrested and sentenced. An that the population is evenly split between blacks and whites. (1) Criminal prevalence: 50% B, 50% W (2) Police stops: 91% B, 9% W (3) Criminals caught (reports): 91% B, 9% W (4) Incarceration: 91% B, 9% W Now remember that only (3) and (4) are available to the public, so one might look and say that the problem isn't that blacks are incarcerated differently, but that blacks commit more crimes, when they don't.