Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:42:49.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

DRIVING WHILE BLACK IN SUBURBAN DETROIT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2010

Timothy Bates
Timothy Bates*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Wayne State University
*
Timothy Bates, 204 Cherokee Road, Asheville, NC 28804. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One objective of this study is to investigate whether Black drivers are more likely than White motorists to receive traffic tickets and to be arrested following routine traffic stops in the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe, Michigan. Compared to White drivers, Blacks were more likely to be arrested and ticketed when police officer discretion was most pronounced. My broader objective is to explore police enforcement of racialized space in suburban Detroit. Outcomes of routine traffic stops were analyzed to determine whether enforcement of racialized space could be detected by comparing how drivers were treated on Eastpointe streets that were more, opposed to less, White. Black motorists driving on internal streets were more likely to attract police attention than those driving along Eastpointe's border street with Detroit, Eight Mile Road, which is interpreted as evidence that Black drivers are more likely to be ticketed, searched, and arrested when they were “out of place”.

Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 2010 , pp. 133 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ayres, Ian (2001). Pervasive Prejudice? Unconventional Evidence of Racial and Gender Discrimination. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ayres, Ian and Borowsky, Jonathan (2008). A Study of Racially Disparate Outcomes in the Los Angeles Police Department. Report to the ACLU of Southern California (October).Google Scholar
Cresswell, Tim (1996). In Place/Out of Place: Geography, Ideology, and Transgression. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Engel, Robin S. and Calnon, Jennifer M. (2004). Examining the Influence of Drivers' Characteristics During Traffic Stops with Police: Results From a National Survey. Justice Quarterly, 21: 49–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farley, Reynolds, Danziger, Sheldon, and Holzer, Harry J. (2000). Detroit Divided. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Knowles, John, Persico, Nicole, and Todd, Petra (2001). Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence. Journal of Political Economy, 109(1): 203–08.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamberth, John (1994). Revised Statistical Analysis of the Incidence of Police Stops and Arrests of Black Drivers/Travelers on the New Jersey Turnpike Between Exits or Interchanges 1 and 3 from the Years 1988 Through 1991. ⟨http://www.lamberthconsulting.com/downloads/new_jersey_study_report.pdf⟩ (accessed April 12, 2010).Google Scholar
Lefebvre, Henri (1991). The Production of Space. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lundman, Richard J. and Kaufman, Robert L. (2003). Driving while Black: Effects of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Citizen Self-reports of Traffic Stops and Police Actions. Criminology, 41: 195–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, Heather (2001). The Myth of Racial Profiling. City Journal, 11(2): 14–27.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Heather (2002). The Racial Profiling Myth Debunked. City Journal, 12(2): 63–73.Google Scholar
Meehan, Albert J. and Ponder, Michael C. (2002). Race and Place: The Ecology of Racial Profiling African American Motorists. Justice Quarterly, 19: 399–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meiklejohn, Susan Turner (2002). Overqualified youth in a Detroit job training program. Economic Development Quarterly, 16(4): 342–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, Samuel L. Jr. (2002). Analysis of Racial Profiling as Policy Analysis. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 21(2): 287–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramirez, Deborah, McDevitt, Jack, and Farrell, Amy (2000). A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection System: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Turner, Susan C. (1997). Barriers to a Better Break: Employer Discrimination and Spatial Mismatch in Metropolitan Detroit. Journal of Urban Affairs, 19: 123–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar