Data and Code for "A Few Bad Apples? Racial Bias in Policing"

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Felipe Goncalves, University of California-Los Angeles; Steven Mello, Dartmouth College

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  CODE 01/04/2021 09:27:PM
  TEMP 01/04/2021 09:41:PM
  data 01/04/2021 10:09:PM
  master_files 01/04/2021 09:28:PM
LICENSE.txt text/plain 1.9 KB 01/17/2021 07:53:AM
readme.pdf application/pdf 182.5 KB 01/17/2021 09:51:AM
scheme-custom.scheme text/x-csrc 1.8 KB 10/01/2020 09:17:AM

Project Citation: 

Goncalves, Felipe, and Mello, Steven. Data and Code for “A Few Bad Apples? Racial Bias in Policing.” Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-02-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/E120242V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary We estimate the degree to which individual police officers practice racial discrimination. Using a bunching estimation design and data from the Florida Highway Patrol, we show that minorities are less likely to receive a discount on their speeding tickets than white drivers. Disaggregating this difference to the individual police officer, we estimate that 37% of officers practice discrimination. We then apply our officer- level discrimination measures to various policy-relevant questions in the literature. In particular, reassigning officers across locations based on their lenience can effectively reduce the aggregate disparity in treatment.


Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Traffic Stops
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
      K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Florida
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1/1/2005 – 12/31/2015
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source
Florida Court Clerks and Comptrollers
Florida Department of Corrections
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Florida Department of Transportation
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
Florida Highway Patrol
Internal Revenue Service
TrueCar
US Census Bureau
Integrated Public Use Microdata (IPUMS)

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-02-20]

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