Distributive justice and police legitimacy: the demographic and geographical distribution of police ID checks in Spain

Abstract

The distribution of police activity throughout society is a key issue for distributive justice and police legitimacy. This article presents two studies on the distribution of police identification checks in Catalonia (Spain) using data provided by Mossos d'Esquadra (the Catalan Regional Police). The first study explores the demographic distribution of ID checks, in other words, which groups of people are more likely to be stopped and have their identification checked by police. The second study examines the geographical distribution, that is, in which places are there greater concentrations of ID checks. The results show that with regards to demographics, men, young people and foreign people are associated with higher levels of ID checks. In addition, the geographical distribution is not primarily driven by crime rates, thus, in general, it seems that the distribution of ID checks is not as strongly related to crime as may be expected.

Why do people legitimize and cooperate with the police? Results of a randomized control trial on the effects of procedural justice in Quito, Ecuador

“…Criminological studies have primarily focused on identifying the factors that influence perceptions of police power. For example, research has found that perceptions of police legitimacy are associated with the equitable distribution of police resources (López, 2021;Tyler & Huo, 2002), law-abiding police behaviour (Sun et al, 2018) effectiveness in crime control (Bradford et al, 2012), and procedural fairness (Mazerolle et al, 2013b;Walters et al, 2019). However, the relative importance of each factor may vary depending on the cultural context in which police-citizen relations take place (Jackson et al, 2014;Tankebe, 2009).…”

Equality Before the Courts? Studying Citizenship Disparities in Sentencing in Catalonia

“…10 More recently, the social alarm has moved towards the unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents, most of them coming from Marrakesh (42%), Mali (17.4%), Algeria (16.6%) and Senegal (13.3%) (Fiscsalía General del Estado, 2021), that are seen as a threat in some political and media discourses, generating social alarm, suspicion and rejection 11 (García España & Carvalho da Silva, 2019;García España et al, 2021). In general, the African descendent population is linked to crime by media in Spain (Cea d'Ancona & Valles Martínez, 2021) and they are frequently stopped by the police (APDHA & IPAZ-UGR, 2016; García Añon et al, 2013;López Riba, 2021). The last group highlighted by the literature as being criminalised by the media and the population are Eastern Europeans.…”

“…Stereotypes link these people to gangs responsible for violent burglaries and robberies. Even the police share this belief (Schmitt & Pernas, 2008) and subsequently they are more targeted in police activity (APDHA & IPAZ-UGR, 2016; García Añon et al, 2013;López Riba, 2021).…”

“…In Spain, there are 17 autonomous communities (and two autonomous cities) but only two of them have competences in matters of execution of prison sentences, the Basque Country and Catalonia, the rest being the responsibility of the General State Administration.3 In Spain, Criminal Courts are known as a unipersonal judicial body which, among other functions, hears the prosecution of crimes punishable by prison sentences up to 5 years, a fine or any other punishment up to 10 years (art. 14 Criminal Procedure Act).4 As in other countries, discriminatory and selective police practices have also been evidenced in Spain(García Añón et al, 2013;APDHA & IPAZ-UGR, 2016;López Riba, 2021). In this sense, it is clear that disproportionate police control over foreigners influences the likelihood that they will end up in prison.…”

“…For example, there is evidence that foreigners are more controlled by the police inSpain and Catalonia (APDHA & IPAZ-UGR, 2016, García Añón et al, 2013;López Riba, 2021) so they may have more criminal records because of this reason.24 A method developed byHainmueller (2012) in the field of political science. Entropy balance takes three steps to reweigh observations to make groups comparable.…”