IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v249y2025ics0047272725001604.html

Does black and blue matter? An experimental investigation of race, perceptions of police, and legal compliance

Author

Listed:
  • Alston, Mackenzie
  • Owens, Emily

Abstract

Using an online experiment, we examine the role of race in perceptions of policing and willingness to violate the law. Black and White subjects were asked to imagine themselves driving in a real (but unnamed) majority White or majority non-White US city in which the police department was either majority White or majority non-White. Subjects were incentivized to drive quickly but also warned that they might receive a ticket based on their speed, their personal characteristics, and the real-life ticketing practices in that city. Expectations about the likelihood of being ticketed for speeding were higher among Black subjects than among White subjects. Black subjects also showed a higher willingness to pay for information on the racial makeup of the police department. However, Black subjects drove at similar speeds under all conditions tested, regardless of the racial demographics of the city, the racial composition of the police department, or the disparity or congruence of the two. By contrast, White subjects drove faster when police departments were not racially representative.

Suggested Citation

  • Alston, Mackenzie & Owens, Emily, 2025. "Does black and blue matter? An experimental investigation of race, perceptions of police, and legal compliance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:249:y:2025:i:c:s0047272725001604
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105462
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272725001604
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105462?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Sofie Tegner Anker & Jennifer L. Doleac & Rasmus Landersø, 2021. "The Effects of DNA Databases on the Deterrence and Detection of Offenders," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 194-225, October.
    2. Knox, Dean & Lowe, Will & Mummolo, Jonathan, 2020. "Administrative Records Mask Racially Biased Policing—CORRIGENDUM," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 114(4), pages 1394-1394, November.
    3. Knox, Dean & Lowe, Will & Mummolo, Jonathan, 2020. "Administrative Records Mask Racially Biased Policing," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 114(3), pages 619-637, August.
    4. Mark Hoekstra & CarlyWill Sloan, 2022. "Does Race Matter for Police Use of Force? Evidence from 911 Calls," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 827-860, March.
    5. Marbach, Moritz & Hangartner, Dominik, 2020. "Profiling Compliers and Noncompliers for Instrumental-Variable Analysis," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(3), pages 435-444, July.
    6. Christine L Exley & Judd B Kessler, 2022. "The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(3), pages 1345-1381.
    7. William Harbaugh & Naci Mocan & Michael Visser, 2013. "Theft and Deterrence," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 389-407, December.
    8. Pol Campos-Mercade & Armando N. Meier & Stephan Meier & Devin Pope & Florian H. Schneider & Erik Wengström, 2024. "Incentives to Vaccinate," CESifo Working Paper Series 11379, CESifo.
      • Pol Campos-Mercade & Armando N. Meier & Stephan Meier & Devin Pope & Florian H. Schneider & Erik Wengstroem, 2025. "Incentives to Vaccinate," CEBI working paper series 24-15, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
      • Pol Campos-Mercade & Armando N. Meier & Stephan Meier & Devin G. Pope & Florian H. Schneider & Erik Wengström, 2024. "Incentives to Vaccinate," NBER Working Papers 32899, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Felipe Goncalves & Steven Mello, 2021. "A Few Bad Apples? Racial Bias in Policing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(5), pages 1406-1441, May.
    10. Mirko Draca & Stephen Machin & Robert Witt, 2011. "Panic on the Streets of London: Police, Crime, and the July 2005 Terror Attacks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 2157-2181, August.
    11. Rafael Di Tella & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2004. "Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 115-133, March.
    12. Daniel Ellsberg, 1961. "Risk, Ambiguity, and the Savage Axioms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 75(4), pages 643-669.
    13. Emily Owens & Bocar Ba, 2021. "The Economics of Policing and Public Safety," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 3-28, Fall.
    14. Justin McCrary, 2007. "The Effect of Court-Ordered Hiring Quotas on the Composition and Quality of Police," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 318-353, March.
    15. Desmond Ang & Panka Bencsik & Jesse Bruhn & Ellora Derenoncourt, 2025. "Community Engagement with Law Enforcement after High-Profile Acts of Police Violence," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 124-142, March.
    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. Federico Masera, 2022. "The economics of policing and crimeThe economics of policing and crime," Chapters, in: Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Vanin & Juan Vargas (ed.), A Modern Guide to the Economics of Crime, chapter 2, pages 12-29, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Harvey, Anna & Mattia, Taylor, 2024. "Reducing racial disparities in crime victimization: Evidence from employment discrimination litigation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    3. Pradhi Aggarwal & Alec Brandon & Ariel Goldszmidt & Justin Holz & John List & Ian Muir & Gregory Sun & Thomas Yu, 2022. "High-frequency location data shows that race affects the likelihood of being stopped and fined for speeding," Natural Field Experiments 00764, The Field Experiments Website.
    4. Lieberman, Carl, 2024. "Variation in racial disparities in police use of force," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    5. Elisa Facchetti, 2025. "Police infrastructure, police performance, and crime: evidence from austerity cuts," IFS Working Papers W24/16, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. Mikdash, Maya & Zaiour, Reem, 2024. "The impact of police shootings on gun violence and civilian cooperation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    7. Lauren Ceh & Katherine Herrmann & Stephan Munari & Ryan Sullivan & Simon Véronneau, 2026. "Securing critical maritime and Navy infrastructures: A workforce analysis of the Navy Security Forces," Journal of Transportation Security, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-34, December.
    8. David Bjerk, 2022. "Does greater police funding help catch more murderers?," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), pages 528-559, September.
    9. Jordi Blanes i Vidal & Tom Kirchmaier, 2015. "The Effect of Police Response Time on Crime Detection," CEP Discussion Papers dp1376, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Neanidis, Kyriakos C. & Papadopoulou, Vea, 2013. "Crime, fertility, and economic growth: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 101-121.
    11. Cohen R. Simpson & David S. Kirk, 2023. "Is Police Misconduct Contagious? Non-trivial Null Findings from Dallas, Texas," Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 425-463, June.
    12. O’Flaherty, Brendan & Sethi, Rajiv, 2015. "Urban Crime," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1519-1621, Elsevier.
    13. Pickett, Justin & Graham, Amanda & Nix, Justin & Cullen, Francis T., 2022. "Officer Diversity May Reduce Black Americans’ Fear of the Police," SocArXiv 7mrgp_v1, Center for Open Science.
    14. Nayoung Rim & Roman Rivera & Andrea Kiss & Bocar Ba, 2020. "The Black-White Recognition Gap in Award Nominations," Working Papers 2020-065, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    15. Celislami, Elda & Kastoryano, Stephen & Mastrobuoni, Giovanni, 2023. "Strategic Bureaucratic Opacity: Evidence from Death Investigation Laws and Police Killings," IZA Discussion Papers 16609, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Brendan O'Flaherty & Rajiv Sethi & Morgan Williams, 2024. "The nature, detection, and avoidance of harmful discrimination in criminal justice," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(1), pages 289-320, January.
    17. Blesse, Sebastian & Diegmann, André, 2019. "Police reorganization and crime: Evidence from police station closures," ZEW Discussion Papers 18-044, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, revised 2019.
    18. Cheng, Cheng & Long, Wei, 2022. "The effect of highly publicized police killings on policing: Evidence from large U.S. cities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    19. Desmond Ang & Panka Bencsik & Jesse Bruhn & Ellora Derenoncourt, 2021. "Police violence reduces civilian cooperation and engagement with law enforcement," Working Papers 2021-16, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    20. Jedidiah L. Knode & Travis M. Carter & Scott E. Wolfe, 2026. "Beyond Identification: A Problem-Oriented Approach to Diagnosing Racial Disparities in Policing," Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 61-90, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

    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:eee:pubeco:v:249:y:2025:i:c:s0047272725001604. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578 .

    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.