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Neighborhood Variation in Police Stops and Searches: A Test of Consensus and Conflict Perspectives

NCJ Number
240948
Journal
Police Quarterly Volume: 15 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2012 Pages: 219-240
Author(s)
Brian C. Renauer
Date Published
September 2012
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This study examined consensus and conflict approaches to explaining police stop and search rates in 94 neighborhoods.
Abstract
This study examines consensus and conflict approaches to explaining police stop and search rates in 94 neighborhoods. Police deployment, racial threat, race-out-of-place, and social conditioning perspectives were analyzed. Models were based on 206,083 stops and 38,493 searches controlling for racial/ethnic makeup, citizen calls for service, disadvantage, prior violent crime suspect rates, time of day, and spatial autocorrelation. The results supported both police deployment and race out of place arguments. Policy implications focus on the need for police and community to fully understand and mutually agree on the relevance of both consensus and conflict perspectives. Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.