An Empirical Analysis of the Socioeconomic Status of Blacks on Police Treatment and Arrests: A Granger Causality Approach

Van, Germinal (2022): An Empirical Analysis of the Socioeconomic Status of Blacks on Police Treatment and Arrests: A Granger Causality Approach.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the fundamental causes that help us understand why the Black community is the racial and ethnic group that is the least well-treated among all minority groups by the police. Many studies have argued that the racial bias of the police towards Blacks is the reason why Blacks are condescendingly treated by the police, which implies that the police in America are racist. This paper argues, however, that the condescending treatment that Blacks receive from the police is not fundamentally based on race but rather on their socioeconomic status. The empirical results of our analysis suggest that the relationship between the socioeconomic status of Blacks and police arrests of Blacks is statistically significant. We, therefore, concluded that the socioeconomic status of Blacks Granger-caused their number of police arrests. Therefore, the primary motivation of the police to treat Blacks and arrest them is based on the assumption of their low-income status rather than the mere fact that they are Black.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• English Title: Socioeconomic Status of Blacks on Police Treatment and Arrests: A Granger Causality Approach
• Language: English
• Keywords: Econometrics, Time-series, Granger Causality, Autoregressive model, Economic Theory, Empirical Analysis
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C1 - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General > C10 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C1 - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General > C12 - Hypothesis Testing: General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C3 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models ; Multiple Variables > C32 - Time-Series Models ; Dynamic Quantile Regressions ; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models ; Diffusion Processes ; State Space Models; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C4 - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C5 - Econometric Modeling; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification

References

1. Desilver, Drew; Lipka, Michael; Fahmy, Dalia. “10 Things we know about race and policing in the U.S.” Pew Research Center. (2020).

2. Ibid.

3. Peeples, Lynne. “What the data say about police brutality and racial bias—and which reforms might work.” Nature. (2020).

4. Weitzer, Ronald. “Racialized Policing: Residents’ Perceptions in Three Neighborhoods.” Law & Society Review. Vol. 34, No. 1 (2000), pp. 129-155

5. Ibid. p. 134

6. Ibid. p. 151

7. Ibid. p. 151