Economic Inequality and the Spatial Distribution of Stop and Search: evidence from London

We analyse the spatial concentration of stop and search (S&S) practices. Previous work argues that the persistent reliance on S&S, despite weak to null deterrent effects on crime, results from a social order maintenance motivation on the part of the police. Expanding previous studies that fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Suss, Joel (Author)
Contributors: Oliveira, Thiago R.
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2023
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2023, Volume: 63, Issue: 4, Pages: 828-847
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Rights Information:CC BY 4.0
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Keywords:
Policing
Stop and search
economic inequality
Police Effectiveness
Social Control
Description
Summary:We analyse the spatial concentration of stop and search (S&S) practices. Previous work argues that the persistent reliance on S&S, despite weak to null deterrent effects on crime, results from a social order maintenance motivation on the part of the police. Expanding previous studies that focused on who tends to be stopped and searched by police officers, we focus on where S&S concentrates and investigate the role of economic inequality. We use data from London in 2019 and demonstrate that a novel measure of salient, spatially granular economic inequality is positively associated with S&S incidence at a small spatial scale, even when controlling for crime rates and other important variables. Police officers more frequently stop and search members of the public in places where the well-off and the economically precarious co-exist. Implications for understanding S&S as a tool that distinguishes between citizens, between those to protect and potential criminals, are discussed.
Item Description:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 845-847
Physical Description:Karten, Diagramme
ISSN:1464-3529
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azac069