Racial Disparity in Traffic Stops: An Analysis of Racial Profiling Data in Texas Page: 27
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drivers were 68% more likely to be searched than white male drivers. In general, approaches
using post-stop decisions to examine the occurrence of racial profiling have been designed in a
relatively short time span and descriptive analyses, such as the one just described, are less
common today because they fail to include other variables that could account for findings of
racial disparity. Current studies, which will be elaborated on below, typically utilize either a
multivariate statistical model or the outcome test to identify discriminatory police practices in
vehicle stop outcomes.
In 2012, a study examined post-stop police officer decisions using a multivariate model
to determine whether Black and Hispanic drivers were searched at a rate different than
nonminorities; specifically, the researchers were interested in controlling for other explanatory
factors (Fallik, & Novak). Data collected from a large Midwestern police agency found that
Blacks were overrepresented among all searches. Although minorities were searched more often,
when other circumstances under which the encounter took place were measured it became
unlikely that the driver's minority status was involved in the officers' decision making. In
particular, the authors noted stops involving males, younger drivers (19-29), and stops occurring
at night as having the greatest explanatory influence on discretionary type searches. Other studies
have identified individual demeanor of the driver, location of stop, situational characteristics
unique to the encounter, crime rate and socioeconomic conditions of the community as
explanations for disparities other than race (Farrell, & McDevitt, 2010).
Researchers have struggled to identify a unique correlation between racial disparities and
traffic stop decisions; comprehensive analysis shows racial disparities frequently exist in other
areas of police decision making (Higgins, Vito, Grossi, & Vito, 2012). For this reason, the latest
attempt in understanding post-stop activity has moved away from focusing on a police officer's27
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Winkler, Jordan M. Racial Disparity in Traffic Stops: An Analysis of Racial Profiling Data in Texas, thesis, August 2016; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc862791/m1/34/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .