1932

Abstract

Crime and policing activities routinely involve interactions between strangers and require the interacting parties to make highly consequential decisions under time pressure. Under such conditions, stereotypes based on visual or other cues can influence behavior. This review considers the role of stereotypes in shaping the manner in which such interactions proceed and the likelihood with which they occur in the first place. Our focus is primarily on robbery, murder, police stops and searches, and the use of deadly force, but the arguments apply more generally. We also consider how stereotypes can become entrenched through the behavioral changes they induce, given large differences across offenses in rate of arrest and prison admission.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-022422-120610
2024-01-26
2024-05-01
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/criminol/7/1/annurev-criminol-022422-120610.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-022422-120610&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Abrams DS, Bertrand M, Mullainathan S. 2012. Do judges vary in their treatment of race?. J. Leg. Stud. 41:234783
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Adler JS. 2006. First in Violence, Deepest in Dirt: Homicide in Chicago, 1875–1920 Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Agan A. 2023. Racial disparities in the criminal legal system: Shadows of Doubt and beyond. J. Econ. Lit. In press
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Agan A, Starr S. 2018. Ban the box, criminal records, and racial discrimination: a field experiment. Q. J. Econ. 133:1191235
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Aggarwal P, Brandon A, Goldszmidt A, Holz J, List JA et al. 2022. High-frequency location data shows that race affects the likelihood of being stopped and fined for speeding Becker Friedman Inst. Econ. Work. Pap. 2022-160 Univ. Chicago
  6. Alexander M. 2010. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness New York: New Press
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Allport GW. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice Cambridge, UK: Perseus
  8. Anderson E 1999. Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City New York: WW Norton
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Antonovics K, Knight BG. 2009. A new look at racial profiling: evidence from the Boston police department. Rev. Econ. Stat. 91:116377
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Anwar S, Fang H. 2006. An alternative test of racial prejudice in motor vehicle searches: theory and evidence. Am. Econ. Rev. 96:112751
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Arnold D, Dobbie W, Hull P. 2022. Measuring racial discrimination in bail decisions. Am. Econ. Rev. 112:929923038
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Arnold D, Dobbie W, Yang CS. 2018. Racial bias in bail decisions. Q. J. Econ. 133:41885932
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Arrow KJ 1973. The theory of discrimination. Discrimination in Labor Markets O Ashenfelter, A Rees 333. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Ayres I. 2002. Outcome tests of racial disparities in police practices. Justice Res. Policy 4:1–213142
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Baldus DC, Woodworth G, Zuckerman D, Weiner NA. 1997. Racial discrimination and the death penalty in the post-Furman era: an empirical and legal overview with recent findings from Philadelphia. Cornell Law Rev 83:1638770
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Banaji MR, Greenwald AG. 2013. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People New York: Bantam
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Barnes JC, Jorgensen C, Beaver KM, Boutwell BB, Wright JP. 2015. Arrest prevalence in a national sample of adults: the role of sex and race/ethnicity. Am. J. Crim. Justice 40:45765
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Becker GS. 1957. The Economics of Discrimination Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  19. Bhattacharjee Y. 2021. Who's making all those scam calls?. New York Times Jan. 27. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/magazine/scam-call-centers.html
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Bodenhorn H. 2016. Blind tigers and red-tape cocktails: liquor control and homicide in late-nineteenth-century South Carolina NBER Work. Pap. 22980
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Bruner JS. 1957. Going beyond the information given. In Contemporary Approaches to Cognitionpp. 4170 Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Brunson RK, Wade BA. 2019. “Oh hell no, we don't talk to police.” Insights on the lack of cooperation in police investigations of urban gun violence. Criminol. Public Policy 18:362348
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Bunting WC, Garcia L, Edwards E. 2013. The war on marijuana in black and white. Rep. Am. Civ. Lib. Union New York.: https://www.aclu.org/report/report-war-marijuana-black-and-white
  24. Bur. Justice Stat 2022. NIBRS estimation summary Rep. NCJ 305107 Off. Justice Progr. Washington, DC.: https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/nibrses.pdf
  25. Cheng C, Hoekstra M. 2013. Does strengthening self-defense law deter crime or escalate violence? Evidence from expansions to castle doctrine. J. Hum. Resourc. 48:382154
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Chimeli AB, Soares RR. 2017. The use of violence in illegal markets: evidence from mahogany trade in the Brazilian Amazon. Am. Econ. J. Appl. Econ. 9:43057
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Clegg J, Usmani A. 2019. The economic origins of mass incarceration. Catalyst 3:3953
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Coate S, Loury GC. 1993. Will affirmative-action policies eliminate negative stereotypes?. Am. Econ. Rev. 83:5122040
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Cook PJ, Ludwig J, Venkatesh S, Braga AA. 2007. Underground gun markets. Econ. J. 117:524F588618
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Craigie T-A. 2020. Ban the box, convictions, and public employment. Econ. Inq. 58:142545
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Dell M. 2015. Trafficking networks and the Mexican drug war. Am. Econ. Rev. 105:6173879
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Dodge L. 1990. Death penalty sentencing: research indicates pattern of racial disparities Rep. NCJ 127081 US Gen. Account. Off. Washington, DC:
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Doleac JL, Hansen B. 2020. The unintended consequences of “ban the box”: statistical discrimination and employment outcomes when criminal histories are hidden. J. Labor Econ. 38:232174
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Durlauf SN, Heckman JJ. 2020. An empirical analysis of racial differences in police use of force: a comment. J. Political Econ. 128:1039984002
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Eberhardt JL, Davies PG, Purdie-Vaughns VJ, Johnson SL. 2006. Looking deathworthy: perceived stereotypicality of black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes. Psychol. Sci. 17:538386
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Eberhardt JL, Goff PA, Purdie VJ, Davies PG. 2004. Seeing black: race, crime, and visual processing. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 87:687693
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Edwards F, Lee H, Esposito M. 2019. Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race-ethnicity, and sex. PNAS 116:341679398
    [Google Scholar]
  38. FBI (Fed. Bur. Investig.) 2023. 2022 Internet crime report Internet Crime Complain Cent. Rep., Fed. Bur. Investig. Washington, DC: https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2022_IC3Report.pdf
  39. Forman J. 2017. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America New York: Farrar Straus Giroux
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Fryer RG. 2019. An empirical analysis of racial differences in police use of force. J. Political Econ. 127:3121061
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Garland D. 2023. The current crisis of American criminal justice: a structural analysis. Annu. Rev. Criminol. 6:4363
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Goel S, Rao JM, Shroff R. 2016. Precinct or prejudice? Understanding racial disparities in New York City's stop-and-frisk policy. Ann. Appl. Stat. 10:136594
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Goncalves F, Mello S. 2021. A few bad apples? Racial bias in policing. Am. Econ. Rev. 111:5140641
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Grogger J, Ridgeway G. 2006. Testing for racial profiling in traffic stops from behind a veil of darkness. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 101:47587887
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Harcourt BE. 2007. Against Prediction: Profiling, Policing, and Punishing in an Actuarial Age Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Hirschfield PJ. 2023. Exceptionally lethal: American police killings in a comparative perspective. Annu. Rev. Criminol. 6:47198
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Holzer HJ, Raphael S, Stoll MA. 2006. Perceived criminality, criminal background checks, and the racial hiring practices of employers. J. Law Econ. 49:245180
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Horrace WC, Rohlin SM. 2016. How dark is dark? Bright lights, big city, racial profiling. Rev. Econ. Stat. 98:222632
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Kaeble D. 2021. Time served in state prison, 2018 Bur. Justice Stat. Rep. NCJ 255662 Off. Justice Progr. Washington, DC: https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/tssp18.pdf
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Kalinowski J, Ross SL, Ross MB. 2017. Endogenous driving behavior in veil of darkness tests for racial profiling NBER Work. Pap. 28789
  51. Keel TG, Jarvis JP, Muirhead YE. 2009. An exploratory analysis of factors affecting homicide investigations: examining the dynamics of murder clearance rates. Homicide Stud 13:15068
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Kennedy R. 1998. Race, Crime, and the Law New York: Vintage
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Kleinberg J, Lakkaraju H, Leskovec J, Ludwig J, Mullainathan S. 2018. Human decisions and machine predictions. Q. J. Econ. 133:123793
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Knowles J, Persico N, Todd P. 2001. Racial bias in motor vehicle searches: theory and evidence. J. Political Econ. 109:120329
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Knox D, Lowe W, Mummolo J. 2020. Administrative records mask racially biased policing. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 114:361937
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Lee C. 2005. The value of life in death: multiple regression and event history analyses of homicide clearance in Los Angeles County. J. Crim. Justice 33:652734
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Leovy J. 2015. Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America New York: One World/Ballantine
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Li W. 2022. What can FBI data say about crime in 2021? It's too unreliable to tell. The Marshall Project June 14. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/06/14/what-did-fbi-data-say-about-crime-in-2021-it-s-too-unreliable-to-tell
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Lindo JM, Padilla-Romo M. 2018. Kingpin approaches to fighting crime and community violence: evidence from Mexico's drug war. J. Health Econ. 58:25368
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Lippmann W. 1922. Public Opinion San Diego: Harcourt
  61. Loury GC. 2002. The Anatomy of Racial Inequality Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
  62. Lowery W, Kelly K, Mellnik T, Rich S. 2018. Where killings go unsolved. Washington Post June 6. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/investigations/where-murders-go-unsolved/
    [Google Scholar]
  63. McClellan C, Tekin E. 2017. Stand your ground laws, homicides, and injuries. J. Hum. Resourc. 52:362153
    [Google Scholar]
  64. McIntyre F, Baradaran S. 2013. Race, prediction, and pretrial detention. J. Empir. Leg. Stud. 10:474170
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Merton RK. 1948. The self-fulfilling prophecy. Antioch Rev. 8:2193210
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Merton RK. 1995. The Thomas theorem and the Matthew effect. Soc. Forces 74:379422
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Miron JA. 2004. Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition Oakland, CA: Independent Inst.
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Moskos P. 2016. Philando Castile. Cop in the Hood July 7. https://copinthehood.com/philando-castile-2/
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Mullainathan S. 2015. Police killings of blacks: Here is what the data say. New York Times Oct. 16. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/upshot/police-killings-of-blacks-what-the-data-says.html
    [Google Scholar]
  70. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2007. Crime and segregation. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 64:3–4391405
    [Google Scholar]
  71. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2008. Racial stereotypes and robbery. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 68:3–451124
    [Google Scholar]
  72. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2009. Why have robberies become less frequent but more violent?. J. Law Econ. Organ. 25:251834
    [Google Scholar]
  73. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2010a. Homicide in black and white. J. Urban Econ. 68:321530
    [Google Scholar]
  74. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2010b. Peaceable kingdoms and war zones: preemption, ballistics and murder in Newark. The Economics of Crime: Lessons for and from Latin America R Di Tella, S Edwards, E Schargrodsky 30553. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  75. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2010c. The racial geography of street vice. J. Urban Econ. 67:327086
    [Google Scholar]
  76. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2010d. Witness intimidation. J. Leg. Stud. 39:2399432
    [Google Scholar]
  77. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R 2015. Urban crime. Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics G Duranton, J Henderson, W Strange 1519621. Amsterdam: Elsevier
    [Google Scholar]
  78. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R. 2019. Shadows of Doubt: Stereotypes, Crime, and the Pursuit of Justice Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  79. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R 2022. Stereotypes and the administration of justice. Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action A Deshpande Singapore: Springer
    [Google Scholar]
  80. O'Flaherty B, Sethi R, Williams M Jr. 2023. The nature, detection, and avoidance of discrimination in criminal justice J. Policy Anal. Manag In press
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Okrent D. 2010. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition New York: Simon Schuster
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Owens EG. 2014. The American temperance movement and market-based violence. Am. Law Econ. Rev. 16:243372
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Palmer C, Purcell D, Newall M, Dean MM. 2021. Philly gun arrests are on a record pace, but convictions drop under DA Krasner. Philadelphia Inquirer March 30. https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-gun-arrests-2021-convictions-vufa-20210330.html
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Papachristos AV. 2009. Murder by structure: dominance relations and the social structure of gang homicide. Am. J. Sociol. 115:174128
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Papachristos AV, Wildeman C, Roberto E. 2015. Tragic, but not random: the social contagion of nonfatal gunshot injuries. Soc. Sci. Med. 125:13950
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Pettit B, Western B. 2004. Mass imprisonment and the life course: race and class inequality in US incarceration. Am. Sociol. Rev. 69:215169
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Pfaff J. 2017. Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform New York: Basic Books
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Phelps ES. 1972. The statistical theory of racism and sexism. Am. Econ. Rev. 62:465961
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Pierson E, Simoiu C, Overgoor J, Corbett-Davies S, Jenson D et al. 2020. A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States. Nat. Hum. Behav. 4:773645
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Powdermaker H. 1939. After Freedom New York: Viking Press
  91. Puckett JL, Lundman RJ. 2003. Factors affecting homicide clearances: multivariate analysis of a more complete conceptual framework. J. Res. Crime Delinquency 40:217193
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Raphael S, Stoll MA. 2013. Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? New York: Russell Sage Found.
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Rehavi MM, Starr SB. 2014. Racial disparity in federal criminal sentences. J. Political Econ. 122:6132054
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Rice OK. 1982. The Hatfields and the McCoys Lexington, KY: Univ. Press Kentucky
  95. Rohrlich T, Tulsky F. 1996. Not all L.A. murder cases are equal. Los Angeles Times Dec. 3. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-12-03-mn-6131-story.html
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Sampson RJ, Wilson WJ. 1995. Toward a theory of race, crime, and urban inequality. Crime and Inequality J Hagan, RD Peterson 3756. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Sampson RJ, Wilson WJ, Katz H. 2018. Reassessing “Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality”: enduring and new challenges in 21st century America. Du Bois Rev. Soc. Sci. Res. Race 15:11334
    [Google Scholar]
  98. S. C. Dep. Public Saf 2014. Second follow up: trooper involved shooting in Richland County on September 4 Press Release, Sept. 19
    [Google Scholar]
  99. Schelling TC. 1960. The Strategy of Conflict Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Pres
  100. Schwartz GL, Jahn JL. 2020. Mapping fatal police violence across US metropolitan areas: overall rates and racial/ethnic inequities, 2013–2017. PLOS ONE 15:6e0229686
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Sethi R 2020. Crime and punishment in divided societies. Difference without Domination: Pursuing Justice in Diverse Democracies D Allen, R Somanathan 93114. Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  102. Sherman LW. 2018. Reducing fatal police shootings as system crashes: research, theory, and practice. Annu. Rev. Criminol. 1:42149
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Sklansky DA. 1995. Cocaine, race, and equal protection. Stanford Law Rev 47:61283322
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Smith M, Capecchi C, Furber M. 2016. Peaceful protests follow Minnesota governor's call for calm. New York Times July 8. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/09/us/philando-castile-jeronimo-yanez.html
    [Google Scholar]
  105. Taylor CA. 2020. Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America New York: Abrams
    [Google Scholar]
  106. Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 1985.)
  107. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 1968.)
  108. Thomas WI, Thomas DS. 1928. The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs New York: Knopf
    [Google Scholar]
  109. Tonry M. 2011. Punishing Race: A Continuing American Dilemma Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  110. Tyler TR, Fagan J, Geller A. 2014. Street stops and police legitimacy: teachable moments in young urban men's legal socialization. J. Empir. Leg. Stud. 11:475185
    [Google Scholar]
  111. [Google Scholar]
  112. US Kerner Comm 1968. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, report Rep. NCJ 8073 US Dep. Justice Washington, DC:
    [Google Scholar]
  113. [Google Scholar]
  114. Washington Post Investig. Team 2019. Murder with impunity. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/murder-with-impunity/
    [Google Scholar]
  115. Wright RT, Decker SH. 1997. Armed Robbers in Action: Stickups and Street Culture Lebanon, NH: Univ. Press New England
    [Google Scholar]
  116. Zimring FE. 2017. When Police Kill Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-022422-120610
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-criminol-022422-120610
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error