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Cited by 57Policing Practices and PerceptionsCriminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisEducation Discipline and Inequality

Disproportionate Minority Contact in Canada: Police and Visible Minority Youth

Fitzgerald, Robin T., Carrington, Peter J.·2011·Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
DOI 10.3138/cjccj.53.4.449
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Abstract

There is a consensus that some racial groups are over-represented in their contact with the Canadian justice system, but a lack of agreement about possible reasons for this over-representation. The two dominant explanations for disproportionate minority contact (DMC) with the police are differential involvement in crime and differential treatment by the police. Differential treatment may be due to disproportionate possession by minorities of risk factors for police contact or to discriminatory policing. This paper uses data on self-reported delinquency and police contacts from a representative sample of Canadian youth aged 12 to 17 years from the National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth to test the hypotheses that DMC is due to differential involvement or to differential treatment due to disproportionate risk factors. The results indicate that there was disproportionate minority contact with the police, but no support was found for explanations of DMC in terms of either differential involvement or differential treatment due to risk factors. Distinguishing between youth who report violent delinquency and all other youth, DMC was found only for the non-violent youth; this DMC was also not explained by differential treatment due to risk factors. By eliminating other explanations, the results suggest that racially discriminatory policing may be one explanation for DMC in Canada.

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Research works printed but not linked: 23

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Authors
Fitzgerald, R. T., & Carrington, P. J.
Affiliations
  • School of Social Science, University of Queensland
  • University of Waterloo (CA)
Venue
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Publisher
University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
Published
2011-10
Volume
53
Issue
4
Pages
449-486
ISSN
  • 1707-7753 (ISSN-L)
  • 1911-0219
DOI
10.3138/cjccj.53.4.449
OpenAlex
W2155372378
Semantic Scholar
3297ef18935f061ae10a86865e8b85c86d4231ce
Cited by
57
References
86
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
6.64
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice/La Revue canadienne de criminologie et de justice pénale (publishedVersion)
  • Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Education › Education Discipline and Inequality
Keywords
disproportionate minority contact, racial discrimination in policing, juvenile delinquency, violent offending, Canadian youth

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