Measuring Racial Discrimination in Bail Decisions /

We develop new quasi-experimental tools to measure disparate impact, regardless of its source, in the context of bail decisions. We show that omitted variables bias in pretrial release rate comparisons can be purged by using the quasi-random assignment of judges to estimate average pretrial miscondu...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
1. Verfasser:
Arnold, David
Körperschaft:
National Bureau of Economic Research
Weitere Verfasser:
Dobbie, Will S., Hull, Peter
Format:
Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:
Englisch
Veröffentlicht:
Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.
Zusammenfassung:
We develop new quasi-experimental tools to measure disparate impact, regardless of its source, in the context of bail decisions. We show that omitted variables bias in pretrial release rate comparisons can be purged by using the quasi-random assignment of judges to estimate average pretrial misconduct risk by race. We find that two-thirds of the release rate disparity between white and Black defendants in New York City is due to the disparate impact of release decisions. We then develop a hierarchical marginal treatment effect model to study the drivers of disparate impact, finding evidence of both racial bias and statistical discrimination.
Umfang:
1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
Anmerkungen:
April 2020.
Schlagworte: