Title: Class Disparities and Discriminatio n in Traffic Stops and Searches
Abstract:
We document class dis parities and discrimination in the incidence of traffic stops and searches. During stops\, troopers are more likely to search low economic status (ES) motorists for contraband\, where we infer ES using vehicle attributes or r esidential neighborhood. Yet searches of low ES motorists are less likely t o yield contraband. Guided by a simple model of trooper behavior\, we also find evidence that low ES motorists are more likely to be pursued in pretex t stops. We develop and implement a test for whether troopers engage in cla ss discrimination that uses motorists stopped in multiple vehicles conveyin g different ES signals. Class discrimination explains at least 25% of the d isparity in search and 68% of the disparity in pretext stops. We present su ggestive evidence that the hassle associated with searches of high ES motor ists may deter troopers.
LOCATION:IONA 533 GEO:49.260872;-123.113952 URL;VALUE=URI:https://economics.ubc.ca/events/event/conrad-miller-berkeley- labour-public-seminar/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 DTSTART:20230312T100000 TZNAME:PDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR