Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

who distributed heroin, methamphetamine, or ecstasy

were Caucasian; about equal proportions of Caucasians,

Latinos, and African Americans sold cocaine; and

only in the distribution of crack cocaine were African

Americans more frequently dealers (47%) than

Caucasians (41%). In comparing the racial composi-

tion of dealers with Seattle’s police departments arrest

data for the sale of these five illicit drugs during the

same time period, researchers found that African

Americans were disproportionately arrested for drug

dealing: 64% of all arrests involved African Americans,

17% involved Caucasians, and 14% involved Latinos.

Although only 47% of crack cocaine dealers were

African Americans, 79% of those arrested for dealing

crack cocaine were African Americans; only 8.6% of

arrestees were Caucasians, even though Caucasians

comprised 41% of crack cocaine dealers. Similar and

significant racial disparity was found for heroin deal-

ers. Two police department mandates contribute to

this substantial racial disparity in arrests for drug deal-

ing: greater emphasis on formally arresting crack

cocaine dealers than dealers of other illicit drugs and

greater surveillance resources in ethnically diverse

open-air drug markets. A greater propensity of vio-

lence among crack cocaine dealers cannot explain the

departments’ allocation of resources; arrests of crack

dealers were less likely to involve gun seizures than

arrests of other illicit drug dealers, and the police

department noted that violence was typically not asso-

ciated with crack dealing at the time of the study.

Second, the primarily Caucasian open-air drug market

received undersurveillance as determined by the

amount of drug and other crime activity, whereas the

ethnically diverse open-air market received oversur-

veillance, and 25 times more arrests were made there.

Higher crime rates or a higher number of citizens’

complaints cannot explain the police department’s

oversurveillance of the ethnically diverse market. The

racial disparity also cannot be explained by the possi-

bility that Caucasian drug dealing occurs in more pri-

vate indoor areas. African Americans were more

likely to be arrested in both outdoors and indoors

areas and also were overrepresented in arrests in both

the primarily Caucasian open-air and the ethnically

diverse open-air drug markets. Other research also

found that African Americans were more likely to be

disproportionately arrested for drug possession.

Police officers may follow these organizational

mandates to concentrate resources in specific areas,

and then the cultural racial stereotype, which may not

be a part of conscious awareness, may affect their

choice of which drug dealers to arrest. Research does

not show that African Americans are more likely to be

drug dealers or users, nor does it indicate that African

Americans are more likely to be caught because their

activity is more visible. Instead, officers follow orga-

nizational mandates that increase the chances of per-

ceiving drug dealing by African Americans, and even

in primarily Caucasian open-air drug markets, offi-

cers’ unconscious awareness of cultural stereotypes

may direct their attention toward African American

dealers. In short, cultural stereotypes may affect offi-

cers who are not racially prejudiced.

Much research suggests that young African American

and Latino men are more likely to be stopped, given

traffic citations, searched or asked for a consent

search, arrested, and subjected to officers’ use of force

than are Caucasian men. Racial profiling, begun dur-

ing the U.S. government’s “war on drugs,” is a contro-

versial decision strategy in law enforcement that has

reinforced using race as a criterion in law enforcement

decisions. The use of racial profiling as a legitimate

decision strategy is now being widely questioned.

Numerous studies suggest that officers pull over

African American drivers less for obvious traffic vio-

lations and more on the basis of race (e.g., “driving

while black/brown”). Research further does not sup-

port that the stopping and subsequently higher rate of

searching of minority offenders indicates a higher rate

of illegal contraband possession. Thus, minorities

compared with Caucasians do not have a higher rate

of actual drug possession. Studies have found that

minority drivers are not more likely to have illegal

drugs or weapons than are Caucasian drivers, and a

few studies have found that searched Caucasian dri-

vers are significantly more likely to have illegal con-

traband than are minority drivers.

Police Decisions on the Use of Force

During questioning of potential suspects, police offi-

cers must decide when and how much physical force

to use to stop citizens who are perceived as resisting

or disrespecting their legal authority. Police depart-

ments receive much negative publicity when officers

decide to use what the public perceives as excessive

force to restrain citizens or when officers incorrectly

perceive resistance and use weapons to force citizens

to comply. For example, in recent years, media reports

have revealed incidents in which officers, using

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