Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Access Criminology and Criminal Justice journals now

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Criminal Justice and Behavior
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Smith, M. R.
Right arrow Articles by Alpert, G. P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Explaining Police Bias

A Theory of Social Conditioning and Illusory Correlation

Michael R. Smith

University of South Carolina, mrsmith{at}gwm.sc.edu

Geoffrey P. Alpert

University of South Carolina

Although recent empirical research has shown that Blacks and Hispanics are consistently overrepresented among police stops, searches, and arrests, few criminologists have attempted to provide a theoretical explanation for the disparities reported in the research literature. This article proposes a theory of individual police behavior that is grounded in social— psychological research on stereotype formation and that assumes a nonmotivational but biased response to minority citizens by the police. Accordingly, stereotype formation and its consequences are largely unintentional and are driven by social conditioning and the illusory correlation phenomenon, which results in the overestimation of negative behaviors associated with minority group members. After specifying the theory, the article presents a research agenda for empirically testing and verifying its propositions.

Key Words: illusory correlation • social conditioning • racial profiling • discrimination • police • theory

Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 34, No. 10, 1262-1283 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0093854807304484
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Police QuarterlyHome page
G. P. Alpert and J. J. Noble
Lies, True Lies, and Conscious Deception: Police Officers and the Truth
Police Quarterly, June 1, 2009; 12(2): 237 - 254.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Police QuarterlyHome page
M. Stroshine, G. Alpert, and R. Dunham
The Influence of "Working Rules" on Police Suspicion and Discretionary Decision Making
Police Quarterly, September 1, 2008; 11(3): 315 - 337.
[Abstract] [PDF]