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41 Criminology 195 (2003)
Driving While Black: Effects of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Citizen Self-Reports of Traffic Stops and Police Actions

handle is hein.journals/crim41 and id is 209 raw text is: DRIVING WHILE BLACK: EFFECTS OF RACE, ETHNICITY, AND GENDER ON CITIZEN SELF-REPORTS OF TRAFFIC STOPS AND POLICE ACTIONS* RICHARD J. LUNDMAN ROBERT L. KAUFMAN The Ohio State University Are African-American men, compared with white men, more likely to report being stopped by police for traffic law violations? Are Afri- can-American men and Hispanic drivers less likely to report that police had a legitimate reason for the stop and less likely to report that police acted properly? This study answers these questions using citizen self- reports of their traffic stop encounters with the police. Net of other important explanatory variables, the data indicate that police make traf- fic stops for Driving While Black and male. In addition, African- American and Hispanic drivers are less likely to report that police had a legitimate reason for the stop and are less likely to report that police acted properly. The study also discusses the validity of citizen self- report data and outlines an agenda for future research. KEYWORDS: Driving While Black; traffic stops by the police. Do police make traffic stops for Driving While Black? Are African- American men as compared with white men more likely to self-report being stopped by police for traffic law violations? Are African-American and Hispanic drivers more likely to perceive the stop as pretextual and less likely to report that police had a legitimate reason for stopping them? Do the special problems associated with encounters between police and citi- zens of color mean that African-American and Hispanic citizens are less likely to exit their traffic stop encounters believing police acted properly? This paper answers these questions using citizen self-reports of their traffic stop encounters with police. We begin with previous research on the effects of extralegal variables on police actions and research on Driv- ing While Black, including the limits of that research. We then analyze citizen self-reports from a nationally representative sample and control for other important explanatory measures such as social class to clarify and * We thank Colin Odden for downloading the data and guidance in data analysis, Christie Batson for noting that it is common for scholars to use data from citizens in their analyses of crime, criminals, and criminal justice, and three anonymous reviewers and the Editor for very helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. CRIMINOLOGY VOLUME 41 NUMBER 1 2003

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