Who knew? A federal study [pdf] found that while drivers of all races were equally likely to be pulled over, minorities (African-American and Hispanic) were more likely to be searched and arrested.
Police were much more likely to threaten or use force against blacks and Hispanics than against whites in any encounter, whether at a traffic stop or elsewhere, according to the Justice Department.

“The numbers are very consistent” with those found in a similar study of police-public contacts in 2002, bureau statistician Matthew R. Durose, the report’s co-author, said in an interview. “There’s some stability in the findings over these three years.”

Traffic stops have become a politically volatile issue. Minority groups have complained that many stops and searches are based on race rather than on legitimate suspicions. Blacks in particular have complained of being pulled over for simply “driving while black.”
What I’m interested in, is the age-old myth that women go scot-free more often than men. Us men can’t bat our eyelids or appear weepy and appeal to the sympathies of the officer. Do the statistics back this up?

Male drivers were more likely than female drivers to experience more serious police actions following a traffic stop. Males (3.2%) were nearly 3 times more likely than females (1.1%) to be arrested (table 8). Males (59.2%) were also more likely than females (54.4%) to be ticketed.

So I guess men are more likely to be arrested, but not ticketed. Aww shucks. Can’t complain anymore. Well, back to the racial disparities:

The racial disparities showed up after that point:

    Blacks (9.5 percent) and Hispanics (8.8 percent) were much more likely to be searched than whites (3.6 percent). There were slight but statistically insignificant declines compared with the 2002 report in the percentages of blacks and Hispanics searched.
    Blacks (4.5 percent) were more than twice as likely as whites (2.1 percent) to be arrested. Hispanic drivers were arrested 3.1 percent of the time.

Among all police-public contacts, force was used 1.6 percent of the time. But blacks (4.4 percent) and Hispanics (2.3 percent) were more likely than whites (1.2 percent) to be subjected to force or the threat of force by police officers.

Make of this what you will. What I am particularly interested in, rather than disparities in traffic stops, are disparities in sentencing. Anyone have any stats on that?

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