RACE ASSIGNMENT MATTERS IN POLICE crospol.txt Steven Levitt: Police forces that add white officers see a disproportionate increase in arrests of non-whites; police forces that add non-white officers see disproportionate increases in arrests of whites. Furthermore, there is some evidence that cross-race policing is more effective in reducing crime. Date forwarded: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 12:12:54 -0400 (EDT) Date sent: Mon, 09 Aug 1999 12:11:12 -0400 From: "Louis R. Andrews" Send reply to: LRAnd@groupz.net Organization: Stalking the Wild Taboo - http://www.lrainc.com/swtaboo/ To: upstream-list@cycad.com Subject: [Upstream] Steven Levitt Forwarded by: upstream-list@cycad.com Steven Levitt, one of the authors of the new study on abortion and crime has other interests as well. This is from his webpage at the American Bar Foundation. Note particularly the second item with its interesting suggestion for reducing crime. Louis --------------------------------- Current research interests include: An Economic Analysis of Gang Finances. With co-author Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist currently at the Harvard Society of Fellows, Levitt has obtained access to detailed financial data compiled by a drug-selling gang over a four-year period. The data includes information on drug sales, revenues from extortion, detailed expenditure breakdowns (e.g. wages, guns, tribute to the central gang, etc.). Combining this information with observational data on the number of arrests, fatalities, and injuries, Levitt and Venkatesh are able to characterize the financial aspect of gangs in a way never previously done. The Impact of Race on Policing, Arrest Patterns, and Crime. With co-author John Donohue, currently a Professor of Law at Stanford University and formerly of the American Bar Foundation, Levitt is examining the role of race in policing. This research suggests that race matters in policing. Police forces that add white officers see a disproportionate increase in arrests of non-whites; police forces that add non-white officers see disproportionate increases in arrests of whites. Furthermore, there is some evidence that cross-race policing is more effective in reducing crime. The possible reasons and public policy implications of these results are also explored. Changes in the Age Structure, Crime Rates, and the Non-existent Juvenile-led Crime Wave. Criminologists have warned for many years that the next fifteen years will see a demographically driven crime wave as the number of teenagers and young adults rises. Careful analysis, however, reveals that the impact of age structure on crime rates is, in fact, quite limited at the aggregate level (although undeniably important at the level of the individual). Historically, changing age structure can explain no more than twenty percent of the rise in crime between 1960 and 1980. Between 1995 and 2010, changes in the age structure will actually tend to lower rather than raise crime; crime increases among juveniles will be more than offset by the declining share of adults aged 24-44 in the population. ---