Racial Disparity in Police Stop and Searches in England and Wales

• Published in: Journal of quantitative criminology Vol. 27; no. 4; pp. 453 - 473
• Main Author: Borooah, Vani K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer 01.12.2011; Springer US; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Asians; Criminal arrests; Criminal justice; Criminal Justice Policy; Criminal sentences; Criminal sentencing; Criminals; Criminology; Criminology and Criminal Justice; England and Wales; Ethnic Groups; Ethnicity; Justice; Law and Criminology; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Ministry; Minority Groups; Offending; Original Paper; Police; Police services; Racial Differences; Racial profiling; Search & seizure; Search and seizure; Sociology; Statistics; Stop & frisk; Stop and search; Traffic police; United Kingdom; Wales; White people; United Kingdom > UK; England; Wales; Sentences; Stop and search; Inequality measures; Racial disparity; Arrests; Cautions
• ISSN: 0748-4518; 1573-7799
• DOI: 10.1007/s10940-011-9131-0

Data published by the United Kingdom's Ministry for Justice clearly shows that, compared to persons who were White, members of racial minorities in England, particularly Blacks, were far more likely to be stopped and searched by the police. The question is whether such racial disparity in stops and searches could be justified by racial disparities in offending? Or whether the disparity in stop and searches exceeded the disparity in offending? This paper proposes a method for measuring the amount of excess in racial disparity in police stop and searches. Using the most recently published Ministry of Justice data (for 2007/08) for Police Areas in England and Wales it concludes that while in several Areas there was no excess to racial disparity in police stop and searches, there was, on the basis of the methodology proposed in the paper, evidence of such excess in some Police Areas of England and Wales.