Race, Ethnicity, and Law Enforcement Profiling: Implications for Public Policy

The proposed Traffic Stops Statistics Study Act of 2001—Title II of Senate Bill 19 of the 107th Congress—was the third consecutive legislative proposal aimed at addressing the perceived problems of racial profiling and police abuse in the detention of minority motorists for allegedly unjustifiable reasons. The measure followed Senate Bill 821 from the 106th Congress and House Bill 118 from the 105th Congress. This study looks at the purpose of these bills, explores the reasons supporters believe that federal policy mandating law enforcement agencies to collect racial data on motorists stopped and detained is needed, and examines a number of public policy questions that a Traffic Stops Statistics Study Act might raise.     

Gender,Race, and Intersectionality in Campaign Finance

Political Behavior - Campaign finance research has given greater attention to race and gender, but, due to data limitations, only separately. Using new data on the ethnoracial and gender...     

Correction to: Gender,Race, and Intersectionality in Campaign Finance

Political Behavior - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-021-09693-y     

The Party's Primary Preferences: Race,Gender, and Party Support of Congressional Primary Candidates

Party support has a strong influence on candidate success in the primary. What remains unexplored is whether party actions during the primary are biased along racial and gender lines. Using candidate demographic data at the congressional level and measures of party support for primary candidates, we test whether parties discriminate against women and minority candidates in congressional primaries and also whether parties are strategic in their support of minority candidates in certain primaries. Our findings show parties are not biased against minority candidates and also that white women candidates receive more support from the Democratic Party than do other types of candidates. Our findings also suggest that parties do not appear to strategically support minority candidates in districts with larger populations of minorities. Lastly, we also find no significant differences in the effects of party support on the likelihood of success in the primary by candidate race or gender.