Coloring the War on Drugs: Arrest Disparities in Black, Brown, and White

Background and Purpose: National data suggest that while a small percentage of Blacks, Hispanics,

and Whites uses and sells drugs, people of color experience rates of corrections system contact

disproportionate to their share of drug criminality. The criminal justice system, particularly the

subset of drug offenders of color, has grown dramatically during the War on Drugs. Despite

recent incremental changes to drug enforcement policy, the War on Drugs’ fundamentally

punitive approach remains largely in effect. Some scholars theorize that racial disparities in drug

arrests reflect differences in the extent or nature of drug offending, while others point to practices

such as racial profiling as manifestations of systemic racial bias. These explanations have rarely

been studied through an analysis of individual-level data, and previous efforts of this kind have

left out key socio-demographic variables.

Research questions:

(1) Are there racial disparities in arrests for drug use, after controlling for incidence of drug use

as well as other socio-demographic variables?

(2) Are there racial disparities in arrests for drug dealing, after controlling for incidence of drug

dealing as well as other socio-demographic variables?

Methods: Data and samples: The present study used the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

97 (NLSY97) data collected from 1997 to 2013. The total sample (n = 8,984) was narrowed to

4,868 respondents (1,191 Blacks, 980 Hispanics, and 2,697 Whites) who had ever used or sold

drugs.

Measures: Arrests for drug use and drug dealing were included as dependent variables. The

analysis controlled for incidence of drug use (used marijuana [number of years], number of days

used marijuana [per month], used hard drugs [number of years], and number of times used hard

drugs [per year]) and incidence of drug dealing (sold drugs [number of years] and number of

times sold drugs [per year]), as well as the following socio-demographic variables: age, gender,

employment status, education, inner-city gang neighborhood, income-to-needs ratio, nondrug

offending, and incarceration. One Way ANOVA and logistic regression analyses were

conducted to examine the research questions.

Results: (Question 1) Blacks were more likely than Whites to be arrested for drug use. This

Black-White disparity persisted after controlling for incidence of drug use. However, the

significance of race was eliminated after controlling for socio-demographic variables, several of

which—e.g. gender, education, and employment status—were associated with arrests for drug

use. (Question 2) Blacks were also more likely than Whites to be arrested for drug use. This

association persisted even after incidence of drug dealing and socio-demographic variables were

entered into the model. Socio-demographic variables that were significant in arrests for drug

dealing include gender, education, employment status, and income-to-needs ratio.

Conclusions and Implications: The current study indicates that racial disparities in drug arrests

are the product of systemic racial bias in drug enforcement, rather than racial differences in the

extent or nature of drug offending. Racial profiling bans, as well as policies that shift away

from mass incarceration toward systematic decarceration, should be pursued to eliminate racial

disparities.