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Because even after controlling for income, American police still disproportionately mistreat Black people. I'm struggling to find the data right now, but I bel

Because even after controlling for income, American police still disproportionately mistreat Black people. I'm struggling to find the data right now, but I believe the source was Phillip Atiba Goff. The tl;dr is that Black people are treated violently by police at a rate of several times that of white people, even once you control for socioeconomic status.

ceejayoz 3y ago
One of the best illustrations of this is a fascinating study about police stops and sunset time. They were able to demonstrate that when the sun is up (i.e. the driver can be seen), black drivers are more likely to be pulled over, but when the sun goes down, it equalizes. As a bonus, they controlled for other factors by looking at these stats around when daylight savings switches. https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/black-drivers-are-less-likely-be-stopped-police-after-sunset https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/black-driv... > First, they narrowed the range of variables they had to analyze by choosing a specific time of day — around 7 p.m. — when the probable causes for a stop were more or less constant. Next, they took advantage of the fact that, in the months before and after daylight saving time each year, the sky gets a little darker or lighter, day by day. Because they had such a massive database, the researchers were able to find 113,000 traffic stops, from all of the locations in their database, that occurred on those days, before or after clocks sprang forward or fell back, when the sky was growing darker or lighter at around 7 p.m. local time. > This dataset provided a statistically valid sample with two important variables — the race of the driver being stopped, and the darkness of the sky at around 7 p.m. The analysis left no doubt that the darker it got, the less likely it became that a black driver would be stopped. The reverse was true when the sky was lighter.
- kaitai 3y ago
  Hah, just linked to the Minneapolis counterpart study above. Yes, this is an elegant natural data experiment, thanks for sharing this version that touches a larger dataset.
verteu 3y ago
I'd be interested to see the source. I found several studies by Phillip Atiba Goff that did NOT control for SES. (Easy to find a statistically significant result when you ignore confounding variables!) But none that did. [1] https://sci-hub.ee/10.1177/1948550616633505 https://sci-hub.ee/10.1177/1948550616633505 [2] https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-101518-042633#_i3 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-lawso... [3] https://sci-hub.ee/10.1007/s10940-020-09471-9 https://sci-hub.ee/10.1007/s10940-020-09471-9
Volundr 3y ago
Also more likely to be wrongfully convicted [1] and receive longer sentences [2]. [1] https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/report-black-people-7-5-times-more-likely-to-be-wrongfully-convicted-of-murder-than-whites-risk-even-greater-if-victim-was-white https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/report-black-people-7-5-ti... [2] https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-differences-sentencing https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-d...

ceejayoz 3y ago

One of the best illustrations of this is a fascinating study about police stops and sunset time. They were able to demonstrate that when the sun is up (i.e. the driver can be seen), black drivers are more likely to be pulled over, but when the sun goes down, it equalizes. As a bonus, they controlled for other factors by looking at these stats around when daylight savings switches. https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/black-drivers-are-less-likely-be-stopped-police-after-sunset https://engineering.stanford.edu/magazine/article/black-driv... > First, they narrowed the range of variables they had to analyze by choosing a specific time of day — around 7 p.m. — when the probable causes for a stop were more or less constant. Next, they took advantage of the fact that, in the months before and after daylight saving time each year, the sky gets a little darker or lighter, day by day. Because they had such a massive database, the researchers were able to find 113,000 traffic stops, from all of the locations in their database, that occurred on those days, before or after clocks sprang forward or fell back, when the sky was growing darker or lighter at around 7 p.m. local time. > This dataset provided a statistically valid sample with two important variables — the race of the driver being stopped, and the darkness of the sky at around 7 p.m. The analysis left no doubt that the darker it got, the less likely it became that a black driver would be stopped. The reverse was true when the sky was lighter.

kaitai 3y ago
Hah, just linked to the Minneapolis counterpart study above. Yes, this is an elegant natural data experiment, thanks for sharing this version that touches a larger dataset.

verteu 3y ago

I'd be interested to see the source. I found several studies by Phillip Atiba Goff that did NOT control for SES. (Easy to find a statistically significant result when you ignore confounding variables!) But none that did. [1] https://sci-hub.ee/10.1177/1948550616633505 https://sci-hub.ee/10.1177/1948550616633505 [2] https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-101518-042633#_i3 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-lawso... [3] https://sci-hub.ee/10.1007/s10940-020-09471-9 https://sci-hub.ee/10.1007/s10940-020-09471-9

Volundr 3y ago

Also more likely to be wrongfully convicted [1] and receive longer sentences [2]. [1] https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/report-black-people-7-5-times-more-likely-to-be-wrongfully-convicted-of-murder-than-whites-risk-even-greater-if-victim-was-white https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/report-black-people-7-5-ti... [2] https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-differences-sentencing https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/demographic-d...