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An Economic Analysis of Black-White Disparities in the New York Police Department's Stop-and-Frisk Program

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  • Decio Coviello
  • Nicola Persico

Abstract

We introduce a model to explore the identification of two distinct sources of bias in the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk program: the police officer making the stop decisions and the police chief allocating personnel across precincts. We analyze 10 years of data from the stop-and-frisk program in light of this theoretical framework. We find that white pedestrians are slightly less likely than African American pedestrians to be arrested conditional on being stopped. We interpret this finding as evidence that the officers making the stops are on average not biased against African Americans relative to whites, because the latter are stopped despite being a less productive stop for a police officer. We find suggestive evidence of police bias in the decision to frisk. Further research is needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Decio Coviello & Nicola Persico, 2015. "An Economic Analysis of Black-White Disparities in the New York Police Department's Stop-and-Frisk Program," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 315-360.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlstud:doi:10.1086/684292
    DOI: 10.1086/684292
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sarath Sanga, 2009. "Reconsidering Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(6), pages 1155-1159, December.
    2. Justin McCrary, 2002. "Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1236-1243, September.
    3. Dharmapala Dhammika & Ross Stephen L, 2004. "Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Additional Theory and Evidence," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, September.
    4. Nicola Persico & Petra E. Todd, 2005. "Passenger Profiling, Imperfect Screening, and Airport Security," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 127-131, May.
    5. Levitt, Steven D, 1997. "Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 270-290, June.
    6. Shamena Anwar & Hanming Fang, 2006. "An Alternative Test of Racial Prejudice in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 127-151, March.
    7. John Knowles & Nicola Persico & Petra Todd, 2001. "Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(1), pages 203-232, February.
    8. Nicola Persico, 2002. "Racial Profiling, Fairness, and Effectiveness of Policing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1472-1497, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alberto Alesina & Michela Carlana & Eliana La Ferrara & Paolo Pinotti, 2018. "Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools," NBER Working Papers 25333, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Steven F. Lehrer & Louis‐Pierre Lepage, 2020. "How Do NYPD Officers Respond to Terror Threats?," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(347), pages 638-661, July.
    3. Carl Lieberman, 2020. "Variation in Racial Disparities in Police Use of Force," Working Papers 639, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    4. Lundberg, Alexander, 2019. "Leniency Can Increase Deterrence," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    5. 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.
    6. Luise Goerges & Tom Lane & Daniele Nosenzo & Silvia Sonderegger, 2023. "Equal before the (expressive power of) law?," Discussion Papers 2023-12, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    7. 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.
    8. Farrell, Chelsea, 2022. "Use of force during stop and frisks: Examining the role of suspect demeanor and race," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    9. Levchak, Philip J., 2021. "Stop-and-frisk in New York City: Estimating racial disparities in post-stop outcomes," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

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