The Impact of Department of Justice Reform Agreements on Arrest Rates and Racial Disparity Within Arrests

• Published date: 01 August 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/08874034241264787
• Author: John Skinner
• Date: 01 August 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034241264787

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2024, Vol. 35(4) 167 –193

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/08874034241264787

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Article

The Impact of Department of

Justice Reform Agreements

on Arrest Rates and Racial

Disparity Within Arrests

John Skinner1

Abstract

Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 gave the Department of Justice

(DOJ) the authority to investigate institutional misconduct and compel reform within

local police agencies. The focus of DOJ reform efforts is often directed at disrupting

patterns of discriminatory policing practices within targeted police departments.

DOJ-led investigations have found that many police departments identified for federal

oversight have historically engaged in discriminatory and bias-based enforcement

strategies. These strategies frequently result in a disproportionate volume of stops,

searches, and arrests of minority populations. The racial disparity found in these

enforcement strategies often deteriorates the trust and legitimacy of police officers.

This article provides an evaluation of the impact of DOJ intervention on arrest rates

and patterns of racial disparity in arrests within large city police departments. The

analysis uses arrest data compiled from the Uniform Crime Reports to compare arrest

patterns across major city police agencies that participated and did not participate in

DOJ reform agreements focused on discriminatory enforcement between 1995 and

2018. This article approaches this evaluation through a heterogeneous difference-

in-difference analysis that uses both attributable risk and relative risk measurements

to compare the racial disparity within arrest trends during and after DOJ reform

intervention.

Keywords

policing, police reform, police consent decrees, police reform agreements, police

enforcement, arrest rates

1Towson University, MD, USA

Corresponding Author:

John Skinner, Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Criminal Justice, Towson University, 8000 York

Road, Towson, Maryland 21252, USA.

Email: jskinner@towson.edu

1264787CJPXXX10.1177/08874034241264787Criminal Justice Policy ReviewSkinner

research-article2024

168Criminal Justice Policy Review 35(4)

In 1994, Congress passed landmark legislation that expanded the role of the Department

of Justice (DOJ). Section 14141 of the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994 gave the

DOJ the authority to investigate, intervene, and compel reform within local police

departments that demonstrate patterns and practices of misconduct and corruption.1 As

the enactment of this historic legislation, the DOJ has used this authority to investigate

and compel reform in a wide range of police agencies. The work of the DOJ in this

area represents one of the most comprehensive and controversial police reform efforts

within the United States. In most cases, reform measures are directed at disrupting

unconstitutional and discriminatory policing strategies that result in the disproportion-

ate enforcement of minority populations (DOJ, 2017; Patel, 2016). While racial bias in

policing is an important problem impacting many communities, this issue is especially

critical in large cities where the complexity of socio-economic conditions, and chal-

lenges associated with crime often create unique complications in police reform.

Despite the significance of DOJ intervention, there has been limited research across

police agencies that examines the impact of DOJ reform agreements on racial disparity

within policing practices.

This article adds to the existing research on police reform by evaluating the impact

of DOJ reform agreements on arrest patterns. The analysis leverages arrest data from

the Uniform Crime Reports to compare arrest trends within police departments serving

metropolitan cities with a population greater than 250,000 that participated in DOJ

reform agreements focused on discriminatory enforcement between 1995 and 2018.

The analysis calculates racial disparity measurements for both attributable risk and

relative risk within annual arrest rates as well as within the subcategory of drug arrests.

Through a heterogeneous difference-in-difference design, changes in these disparity

measurements within DOJ-impacted police departments are compared against a larger

sample of police agencies. This analysis finds that DOJ reform agreements correlate

with an overall reduction of arrests during the early stages of the active reform period

but fails to find consistent evidence that these reductions impact the racial disparity

within arrest patterns as measured through the attributable risk and relative risk

indexes.

Racial Disparity in Police Enforcement

A considerable amount of research has demonstrated the prevalence of racial disparity

in police action and enforcement. In highly publicized studies in Illinois, New Jersey,

North Carolina, and Rhode Island researchers found consistent evidence that African

American drivers are disproportionately stopped for both moving and non-moving

violations (Baumgartner et al., 2017; Farrell & McDevitt, 2006; Lamberth, 2010;

Weiss & Grumet-Morris, 2005). During traffic stops, African Americans are also more

likely to be searched and receive more severe outcomes in the form of citations and

arrests (Baumgartner et al., 2018; Durose et al., 2007; Pierson et al., 2020; Roh &

Robinson, 2009). Research has also demonstrated that racial disparity in police

enforcement extends beyond traffic stops. Between 2002 and 2019, the New York City

Police Department (NYPD) conducted more than five million pedestrian stops. Nearly