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How Dark Is Dark? Bright Lights, Big City, Racial Profiling

Author

Listed:
  • William C. Horrace

    (Syracuse University)

  • Shawn M. Rohlin

    (Kent State University)

Abstract

Grogger and Ridgeway (2006) use the daylight saving time shift to develop a police racial profiling test that is based on differences in driver race visibility and (hence) the race distribution of traffic stops across daylight and darkness. However, urban environments may be well lit at night, eroding the power of their test. We refine their test using streetlight location data in Syracuse, New York, and the results change in the direction of finding profiling of black drivers. Our preferred specification suggests that the odds of a black driver being stopped (relative to nonblack drivers) increase 15% in daylight compared to darkness.

Suggested Citation

  • William C. Horrace & Shawn M. Rohlin, 2016. "How Dark Is Dark? Bright Lights, Big City, Racial Profiling," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(2), pages 226-232, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:98:y:2016:i:2:p:226-232
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    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/REST_a_00543
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discrimination; Racial Profiling; Policing; Bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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