Re: Police stops, race, crime rates, arrest rates

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

lbo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>
> Most Crim textbooks will introduce a discussion of race and crime by
> pointing out that UCR arrest data are clearly a reflection of police
> practices. It's well-known that they are highly political. A politician who
> wants to make it appear that a tough on crime stance worked might encourage
> the police to, not just crack down on crime, but report it in such a way
> that more crimes are reported.

I'm afraid a fine work, Lincoln Steffens, _Autobiography_, is little
read these days. It has a good deal of important history. It als has a
hilarious account of how Steffens, as a cub reporter in New York, caused
a crime wave -- until a family friend, Theodore Roosevelt, than Police
Commissioner of New York, told him to knock it off and the crime wave
disappeared.

Carrol