Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP14946
Authors: Giovanni Facchini; Brian Knight; Cecilia Testa
Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between the franchise andlaw enforcement practices using evidence from the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965. We findthat, following the VRA, black arrest rates fell in counties thatwere both covered by the legislation and had a large number of newly enfranchisedblack voters. We uncover no corresponding patterns for white arrest rates. The reductionin black arrest rates is driven by less serious offenses, for whichpolice might have more enforcement discretion. Importantly, our results are driven by arrests carried out by sheriffs - whoare always elected. While there are no corresponding changes for municipal police chiefs in aggregate, we do find similar patterns in covered counties with elected rather than appointed chiefs. We also show that our findings cannot be rationalized by alternative explanations, such as differences in collective bargaining, changes in the underlying propensity to commit crimes, responses to changes in policing practices, and changes in the suppression of civil right protests. Taken together, these results document that voting rights, when combined with elected, rather than appointed, chief law enforcement officers, can lead to improved treatment of minority groups by police.
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Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| VRA (R19) | decline in black arrest rates (K42) |
| counties with large number of newly enfranchised black voters (K16) | decline in black arrest rates (K42) |
| elected law enforcement leaders (K16) | improved treatment of minority groups by police (J15) |
| VRA + elected law enforcement leaders (K16) | improved treatment of minority groups by police (J15) |
| black arrest rates (K42) | arrests made by sheriffs (K40) |
| black arrest rates (K42) | arrests made by elected police chiefs (J45) |
| lack of significant changes in white arrest rates (J79) | decline in black arrest rates (K42) |