Race and the Decision to Arrest: An Analysis of Warrants Issued

Abstract

Both the conflict perspective and the labeling perspective provide a theoretical base for the hypothesis that nonwhites are more likely than whites to be arrested on less than sufficient evidence. All 1974 adult arrests (N = 28,-235) in a large midwestern city are analyzed to assess the relationship between race and the subsequent issuance of a warrant by the prosecutor's office. Controls for type of offense, age, sex, and racial composition of neighborhood are introduced, yet nonwhites continue to have a larger proportion of arrests which are not upheld by the issuance of a warrant. These results are discussed in terms of the conflict and labeling perspectives.A recent review of numerous efforts to ascertain the effect of race in the disposition process concludes that race is not a significant factor (Hagan, 1974). race of offender is not found to be significantly related to the disposition when factors such as severity of offense and prior arrests are controlled. The analyses of capital punishment by Judson et al. (1969), analyses of court dispositions by Thornberry, in 1973 (see, however, Wellford, 1975), Pope (1976), and Ferdinand and Luchterhand (1970, and analyses of shock probation by Petersen and Friday (1975) are rare in their ability to demonstrate a significant relationship between race and disposition. Yet the resurgence of the conflict perspective (Taylor et al., 1973) has complemented an emphasis within the labeling perspective (Schur, 1971) that race is an important extralegal variable which ought to be significantly related to the dispositional process.The conflict perspective asserts that the likelihood of being defined as criminal is related to the location of individuals and groups in the social structure (Hills, 1971). Power is the major dimension in the criminalization process, and the disposition of the powerless is likely to be based on the concern for organi-

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