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Man vs. Machine: An Investigation of Speeding Ticket Disparities Based on Gender and Race

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Abstract

This paper analyzes the extent to which police behavior in giving speeding tickets differs from the ticketing pattern of automated cameras. The automated tickets provide an estimate of the population of speeders at a given location, time, and even severity of the violation. The data, obtained from Lafayette, Louisiana, provides a wide range of details concerning characteristics of the violation such as location, date, time of day, legal speed, speed over the limit, day of the week, and also specific details about the ticketed driver. The probability of a ticketed driver being African-American or female is significantly higher when the ticket was given by a police officer in contrast to an automated source, implying that police use gender and race as a determining factor in issuing a speeding ticket. Potential behavioral reasons of this outcome have been discussed.

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  • Sarah Marx Quintanar, 2009. "Man vs. Machine: An Investigation of Speeding Ticket Disparities Based on Gender and Race," Departmental Working Papers 2009-16, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2009-16
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    Cited by:

    1. Khondoker Billah & Hatim O. Sharif & Samer Dessouky, 2022. "How Gender Affects Motor Vehicle Crashes: A Case Study from San Antonio, Texas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Mahdie Asl-Javadian & Mahmoud Mesbah & Masoud Foroutan Shad, 2024. "How are traffic fines affected by the driver’s car price and the police officer’s discretion? A case study of Isfahan, Iran," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1019-1038, April.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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