Citation

Pollock W, Menard S, Hill MC. Crim. Justice Rev. 2016; 41(3): 294-317.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Georgia State University Public and Urban Affairs, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0734016816648188

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In their 2012 article, Pollock, Oliver, and Menard found that race was not a significant predictor of being arrested or questioned by police. In light of recent events such as the death of Michael Brown Jr., Freddie Gray, and others, and the resulting media coverage and public protest, the current article sought to reexamine predictors of police contact in greater detail. For this examination, separate analyses were run on respondents with and without serious offending reported to determine whether predictors of police contact are different for individuals with whom the police presumably have more discretion (individuals who are not serious offenders). In addition, path models with logistic regression were created to examine potential indirect effects of all variables, including race.

RESULTS indicate that race does have an indirect effect on police contact, but it is White individuals who are more likely to be questioned and arrested. In addition, other factors including low parental socioeconomic status (which is associated with ethnicity), previous police contact, and gender are more likely, than even involvement in crime, to determine if a person will be questioned or arrested. Differences in predictors based on the seriousness of the offender and implications of the findings are discussed.

Language: en