Race/Ethnicity, Perceived Skin Color, and the Likelihood of Adult Arrest

• Date: 01 October 2021
• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Author: Stephen Demuth,Jessica G. Finkeldey
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368719826269
• Subject Matter: Articles

Race/Ethnicity, Perceived

Skin Color, and the Likelihood

of Adult Arrest

Jessica G. Finkeldey

1

and Stephen Demuth

2

Abstract

Research has long-documented racial/ethnic disparities in criminal justice outcomes.

However, despite race/ethnicity being a multidimensional social construct, prior

research largely relies on self-identification measures, thereby disregarding research

on skin tone stratification within-racial/ethnic groups. The current study extends

beyond this by examining the relationship between race/ethnicity and arrest

employing both self-identified race/ethnicity and perceived skin color. Using data from

the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we explore the main

and intersecting effects of self-identified race/ethnicity and perceived skin color on

experiencing an arrest in adulthood between- and within-self-identified Whites,

Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asians. We use structural disadvantage as a

framework for exploring how social structural factors as well as antisocial behavior

mediate the relationship between race/ethnicity/color and arrest. Results suggest that

focusing on the racial/ethnic disparities alone masks differences in arrest by color and

that the effect of color varies by race/ethnicity. Results also suggest that measures

indicative of disadvantage, but not offending, partially explain these associations.

Keywords

race, ethnicity, skin color, arrest, criminal justice

A vast literature examines the relationship between race/ethnicity and police

contact and arrest (Kochel, Wilson, & Mastrofski, 2011; Mitchell & Caudy, 2015;

Mosher, Miethe, & Hart, 2011; Stewart, Warren, Hughes, & Brunson, 2017;

1

Department of Sociocultural and Justice Sciences, State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia,

NY, USA

2

Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jessica G. Finkeldey, Department of Sociocultural and Justice Sciences, State University of New York at

Fredonia, Fredonia, NY 14063, USA.

Email: jessica.finkeldey@fredonia.edu

Race and Justice

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368719826269

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2021, Vol. 11(4) 567–\ 591

Article

Tapia, 2010; Tonry, 2011). However, despite being a multidimensional social con-

struct that encompasses extra-racial phenotypic characteristics (Dixon & Telles,

2017), few studies on racial/ethnic disparities in arrest use indicators of race/ethnicity

beyond self-identification. Moreover, although there is a substantial literature show-

ing that, within-racial/ethnic groups, lighter skinned individuals are more advantaged

than those with darker skin (Dixon & Telles, 2017; Hochschild & Weaver, 2007;

Hunter, 2013; Monk, 2014), few studies examine the relationship between skin color

and police contact—of which the evidence is mixed (Alcala´ & Montoya, 2016;

Barlow & Barlow, 2002; Branigan, Wildeman, Freese, & Kiefe, 2017; Kizer, 2017;

White, 2015). Notably, evidence for the association between color and arrest may be

inconclusive given the differences between, and limitations of, previous work.

The current study contributes to existing research by providing a more thorough

and robust test of the influence of self-identified race/ethnicity and perceived skin

color on arrest. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

(Add Health), we examine the main and intersecting effects of self-identified race/

ethnicity and perceived skin color on arrest in adulthood between and within Whites,

Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asians. We also move beyond previous

research by examining the unconstrained effect of color (i.e., we make no assumptions

about the linearity of color effects). Further, to understand how macro-level dynamics

produce disparities in the criminal justice system (CJS), we use a lens of structural

disadvantage to explore how social structural factors act as mechanisms through

which darker skinned people are more likely to be arrested. We also consider how

offending, drug use, and alcohol use explain this association. We find some, albeit

mixed, evidence of a relationship between skin color and arrest. We reconcile these

findings with the existing literature and conclude that focusing on the racial/ethnic

disparities alone masks differences in arrest by color and that the effect of color varies

by race/ethnicity.

Background

Racial Disparities in Arrest

Empirical research largely confirms that Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans are

disproportionally arrested relative to Whites, and Asians are underrepresented among

arrestees (Mitchell & Caudy, 2015; Mosher et al., 2011; Snyder, 2011; Tapia, 2010;

Tonry, 2011). Kochel, Wilson, and Mastrofski’s (2011) meta-analysis reveal that the

likelihood of a Black suspect being arrested is 30%greater than a White suspect, net of

legal and extralegal factors. Additionally, Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be

arrested than Whites even when accounting for selection into the CJS (Mitchell &

Caudy, 2015; Tapia, 2010). The reason for these observed disparities is unclear.

Some speculate disparities in the CJS are due to higher levels of violent or more

serious offending by minorities (Beaver et al., 2013; S.W. Perry, 2004; Tonry, 2011).

However, self-report data often reveal more similarities than differences across race/

ethnicity, particularly among less serious offenses (Mosher et al., 2011) and substance

568

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