Racial disparities in police stops in Kingston, Ontario: Democratic Racism and Canadian racial profiling in theoretical perspective by Lysandra R. Marshall A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Criminology Centre for Criminology and Socio-legal Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Lysandra R. Marshall 2017 Racial disparities in police stops in Kingston, Ontario: Democratic Racism and Canadian racial profiling in theoretical perspective Lysandra R. Marshall Doctor of Philosophy, Criminology Centre of Criminology and Sociolegal Studies University of Toronto 2017 Abstract This study takes a quantitative and qualitative approach to examine police stops in an Ontario city. The author finds that Black residents were over stopped by police, and the over stopping may not be fully explained by the police-reported reasons and dispositions of the stops. In other words, the author suggests that police stops have less to do with crime control models of criminal justice, and more to do with surveiling marginalized populations. The author uses critical discourse analysis to examine news coverage of the racial profiling controversy in Ontario, including news reports on the study. The author argues that public discourse (both liberal 'anti- profiling' advocates and conservative supporters of police) contributes to the continued targeting of certain groups, by constructing an ideal victim of racial profiling (middle class, respectable), thus excluding all other subjects from legitimately seeking freedom from being hassled by police and having freedom of movement enjoyed by the nonprofiled population. The study also uncovers the influential role of police unions in Ontario in manipulating political discourse on race and policing. ii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor, Scot Wortley, for many years of support. Thanks also to Matthew Light, for believing it can be done. Thanks to everyone at the Centre of Criminology, especially Mariana Valverde, Jessica Chlebowski, Anthony Doob and Rosemary Gartner. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the late Richard Ericson, David Sealy and Jayne London. Thanks also to Tara Marshall, Brian and Lynne Marshall, Carmy, P.P. and G.G. This dissertation is dedicated to my two daughters, Catherine and Scarlet. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Race and Ethnicity in Canadian Society ............................................................................. 3 1.3 Inequality: the Vertical Mosaic ........................................................................................... 5 1.4 What is ‘racial profiling’? ................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Race and Policing in England and Wales ......................................................................... 16 1.6 Canada: a profound silence ............................................................................................... 19 1.7 Impact of racial profiling .................................................................................................. 21 1.8 The Present Study ............................................................................................................. 25 1.9 Chapter Outline ................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Research Setting ........................................................ 30 2.1 Race and the Criminal Justice System: Origins and Debates ........................................... 30 2.2 Front Stage and Back Stage of the Criminal Justice System ............................................ 33 2.2.1 Sentencing: A front-stage activity ........................................................................ 35 2.3 Back Stage in the Criminal Justice System ....................................................................... 36 2.3.1 DNA fingerprinting ............................................................................................... 37 2.3.2 Pre-Sentencing Reports ......................................................................................... 39 2.4 Research on Racial Profiling: The Evidence .................................................................... 41 2.4.1 Qualitative Methods .............................................................................................. 41 2.4.2 Survey Methods .................................................................................................... 43 2.4.3 Observational Data ................................................................................................ 51 iv 2.4.4 Official Police Administrative Data ...................................................................... 54 2.5 Research Setting ................................................................................................................ 69 2.6 Background to the Kingston Data Collection Project ....................................................... 75 2.7 Kingston Data Collection Project Methodology ............................................................... 78 Chapter 3: Police Stops in Kingston, Ontario ......................................................................... 83 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 83 3.1.1 Interpolation of Census Data ................................................................................ 84 3.2 Stops of ‘Visible minorities’ in Kingston ......................................................................... 84 3.3 Stops of all racial groups in Kingston ............................................................................... 86 3.4 Stops of Pedestrians and Motorists ................................................................................... 92 3.5 Stops of Residents of Kingston ......................................................................................... 94 3.6 Stops of Individuals ........................................................................................................ 100 3.7 Stops by Age and Sex ..................................................................................................... 106 3.8 Benchmarking stops by street observations: the ‘available for stops’ approach ............ 111 3.9 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 118 Chapter 4 – Outcomes Analysis: Explanations for Black Over-Representation in Police Stops ....................................................................................................................................... 119 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 119 4.2 Part 1 : Understanding stop rates from a crime control perspective ............................... 120 4.2.1 Hit Rates Analysis – Citations and Arrests during the study period................... 120 4.2.2 Statistical Discrimination and ‘The Ratchet Effect’ ........................................... 131 4.2.3 Pretext Stops and the Legal Justification for Stop .............................................. 134 4.2.4 Productive Targeting Ratio/Index ....................................................................... 137 4.3 Part 2: Explanations for stop rates beyond crime control ............................................... 147 4.3.1 Getting ‘hassled’: Police Stops as Surveillance .................................................. 147 4.3.2 ‘Symbolic Assailants’” ....................................................................................... 160 v 4.4 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................... 164 Chapter 5: Politics & Discourse in Local Responses to the racial profiling crisis in Kingston: a case for Democratic Racism ............................................................................... 167 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 167 5.2 Part 1- Responses to Mark Wallen incidents in Kingston .............................................. 171 Dominant narratives published in the Kingston-Whig Standard .................................... 174 Counter-narratives published in Kingston Whig-Standard ............................................ 180 5.3 Part 2 - Official Responses to the Kingston Police Data Collection Project .................. 186 Background to the project ............................................................................................... 186 Police Union Responses .................................................................................................