Police officers’ color‐blind racial beliefs linked to differential treatment of White and Black youth

Former Stoneleigh Fellow Naomi Goldstein co-authored a new study examining police officers’ racial beliefs and treatment of White and Black youth. 

A recent study among a sample of American police officers suggests that color-blind racial ideology may influence officers’ decisions to interact with minority youth. The findings were published in Behavioral Science and the Law.

“Police possess a wide range of discretion over decisions to stop, question, search, and, ultimately, arrest youth, which may lead to differential treatment. Thus, the interactions between police and young people that lead to detainment and arrest have become a recent focus of research on disproportionate minority contact (DMC),” study authors Keisha April and colleagues say.

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