IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v99y2018i1p439-452.html

Are “Stand Your Ground” Laws Racist and Sexist? A Statistical Analysis of Cases in Florida, 2005–2013

Author

Listed:
  • Justin Murphy

Abstract

Objective I test for racial and gender bias in the enforcement of “stand your ground” (SYG) laws, controlling for potential confounders often invoked to reject claims of racism and sexism. Methods Regressions, simulations, and genetic matching are conducted using case‐level data from 237 incidents in the U.S. state of Florida between 2005 and 2013. Results Controlling for potential confounders, the probability of conviction for a white defendant against a white victim is estimated to be 90 percent with much error; for a black defendant it is nearly 100 percent with little error. For a male defendant in a domestic case, the probability is 40 percent, whereas for a female defendant it is 80 percent. Conclusions Enforcement of SYG laws appears biased against people of color in general and women specifically in the home. Policy implications are especially stark because these findings contradict recent research conducted for the U.S. Senate.

Suggested Citation

  • Justin Murphy, 2018. "Are “Stand Your Ground” Laws Racist and Sexist? A Statistical Analysis of Cases in Florida, 2005–2013," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 439-452, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:99:y:2018:i:1:p:439-452
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12402
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ssqu.12402?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sekhon, Jasjeet S., 2011. "Multivariate and Propensity Score Matching Software with Automated Balance Optimization: The Matching package for R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 42(i07).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guirong Li & Jiajia Xu & Liying Li & Zhaolei Shi & Hongmei Yi & James Chu & Elena Kardanova & Yanyan Li & Prashant Loyalka & Scott Rozelle, 2020. "The Impacts of Highly Resourced Vocational Schools on Student Outcomes in China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 28(6), pages 125-150, November.
    2. Ralf Becker & Maggy Fostier, 2015. "Evaluating non-compulsory educational interventions - the case of peer assisted study groups," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1509, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    3. Adeola Oyenubi & Martin Wittenberg, 2021. "Does the choice of balance-measure matter under genetic matching?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 489-502, July.
    4. Jacquemet, N. & Luchini, S. & Malézieux, A. & Shogren, J.F., 2020. "Who’ll stop lying under oath? Empirical evidence from tax evasion games," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Lenz, Gabriel & Sahn, Alexander, 2017. "Achieving Statistical Significance with Covariates and without Transparency," MetaArXiv s42ba, Center for Open Science.
    6. repec:osf:metaar:s42ba_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Finocchiaro Castro, Massimo & Guccio, Calogero & Rizzo, Ilde, 2023. "“One-size-fits-all” public works contract does it better? An assessment of infrastructure provision in Italy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 994-1014.
    8. Sara E Moore & Anna Decker & Alan Hubbard & Rachael A Callcut & Erin E Fox & Deborah J del Junco & John B Holcomb & Mohammad H Rahbar & Charles E Wade & Martin A Schreiber & Louis H Alarcon & Karen J , 2015. "Statistical Machines for Trauma Hospital Outcomes Research: Application to the PRospective, Observational, Multi-Center Major Trauma Transfusion (PROMMTT) Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-16, August.
    9. Nobuyuki Hanaki & Nicolas Jacquemet & Stéphane Luchini & Adam Zylbersztejn, 2016. "Cognitive ability and the effect of strategic uncertainty," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 101-121, June.
    10. repec:plo:pone00:0224286 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Maximilian Maurice Gail & Phil-Adrian Klotz, 2025. "E-book Pricing Under the Agency Model: Lessons from the UK," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-39, December.
    12. Marcos-Martinez, Raymundo & Measham, Thomas G. & Fleming-Muñoz, David A., 2019. "Economic impacts of early unconventional gas mining: Lessons from the coal seam gas industry in New South Wales, Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 338-346.
    13. Jasjeet Singh Sekhon & Richard D. Grieve, 2012. "A matching method for improving covariate balance in cost‐effectiveness analyses," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 695-714, June.
    14. Nicolas Jacquemet & Stéphane Luchini & Jason F. Shogren & Verity Watson, 2019. "Discrete Choice under Oaths," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 19007, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    15. Annika Groth, 2020. "Overcoming One-way Impact Evaluation of Rural Electrification Projects," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 464-476.
    16. Wang-Sheng Lee, 2013. "Propensity score matching and variations on the balancing test," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 47-80, February.
    17. Lindlbauer, Ivonne & Schreyögg, Jonas & Winter, Vera, 2016. "Changes in technical efficiency after quality management certification: A DEA approach using difference-in-difference estimation with genetic matching in the hospital industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 250(3), pages 1026-1036.
    18. Nicolas Jacquemet & Alexander James & Stéphane Luchini & Jason F. Shogren, 2017. "Referenda Under Oath," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(3), pages 479-504, July.
    19. Radhika Pandey & Gurnain K. Pasricha & Ila Patnaik & Ajay Shah, 2021. "Motivations for capital controls and their effectiveness," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 391-415, January.
    20. Suonpää, Karoliina & Aaltonen, Mikko & van der Geest, Victor, 2020. "Crime and income trajectories preceding lethal and non-lethal violence," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    21. Shinichi Kitano, 2020. "Formation Factors and Effects on Common Property Resource Conservation of Community Farms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-19, June.
    22. repec:jss:jstsof:42:i08 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Alessi, Lucia & Battiston, Stefano & Kvedaras, Virmantas, 2024. "Over with carbon? Investors’ reaction to the Paris Agreement and the US withdrawal," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:99:y:2018:i:1:p:439-452. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.