tHe War on MariJUana in BlacK anD WHite

ii. The latino data Problem
This report’s sole focus on Black-white racial disparities is the result of the fact that
the FBI/UCR arrest data does not identify Latinos as a distinct racial group and thus
does not distinguish between white and Latino arrests. In other words, an arrest of a
Latino is overwhelmingly categorized as a “white” arrest. This conflation of Latino and
white arrests not only prevents calculation of Latino arrest rates based on the UCR
data, but also results in an underestimation of the racial disparities between Black and
white arrests, since a portion — potentially a significant portion in some places — of
the “white” arrests are likely arrests of Latinos. Put another way, classifying Latinos as
whites for the purposes of reporting arrest data to the FBI/UCR Program can inflate the
“true” white arrest rate and, in turn, deflate the “true” racial disparity in arrest rates
between whites and Blacks. Therefore, in any jurisdiction where the Latino arrest rate is
greater than the white arrest rate — which we suspect is the case in many jurisdictions
— the arrest rate disparities between Blacks and whites will be even more pronounced
than the disparities as captured by the FBI/UCR data. So, for instance, suppose that
there are an equal number of whites, Latinos, and Blacks in a jurisdiction, and that
the true arrest rates for these three groups are 100, 200, and 300, respectively. If all
Latinos are classified as white, then the reported “white” arrest would be calculated
as 150, implying a Black/white racial disparity of 2 (= 300 (Black arrest rate)/150 (white
arrest rate)) when, in fact, the true racial disparity is 3 (= 300/100). Indeed, based on the
limited data we have from two states for which we have Black, white, and Latino arrest
data (New York and California), it appears that Latinos are arrested at higher rates
than whites, sometimes significantly so, but at lower rates than Blacks, and that there
are fewer arrests of whites than suggested by the FBI/UCR data. In New York City, for
example, where Latino arrest data exists, Latinos are arrested at 2.5 times the rates
of whites for marijuana possession. See Appendix A, Figure A1. We are thus able to
capture a more accurate Black-white arrest disparity, revealing that Blacks are arrested
at 6.3 times the rate of whites (and 2.5 times the rate of Latinos). Were all Latino arrests
categorized as “white” arrests in New York City, the Black-white arrest disparity, while
evident, would be lower. 28
Indeed, of the 10 states with the lowest disparities in Black-white arrest rates — Hawaii,
Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Maine, California, Texas, Arizona, and Rhode
Island — seven are among the 15 states with the highest Latino populations, including
the top four: New Mexico, California, Texas, and Arizona. In other words, in these states,
28 At the same time, the inclusion of Latino data will not always have as significant an impact on the reported disparities in the
Black and white arrest rates. In California, Latinos are arrested for all marijuana offenses at only a slightly greater rate than whites.
See Appendix A, Figure A2. Therefore, the exclusion of Latino arrest data in California would not result in a significant underestimation
of the Black-white arrest disparity.
32 | The <strong>War</strong> on Marijuana in Black and White