Crime Minimization and Racial Bias: What Can We Learn from Police Search Data?

Abstract:     
Are variations in the success rate of searches by race informative about racial bias if police are motivated by crime minimization rather than success-rate maximization? We show that the basic idea of extracting information from hit rates may still be valid, provided one can verify some simple restrictions on the joint distribution of criminality by race. We also extend these results to the case where the police minimize the rate of unpunished crime.

JEL Classifications: K42, J15

Working Paper Series