Self-Reported Unfair Police Stops and Skin Tone, Ethnic Origin, and Citizenship Status among Latino Adults

While a growing literature has documented vast ethnoracial inequalities tied to the occurrence and outcomes of police contact, less research has examined the patterning of perceived unfair police stops among Latino populations. The present study relies on insights from tri-racial stratification theory to examine associations between perceived unfair police stops and skin tone, ethnic origin, and citizenship status among Latino adults. Data come from the Pew Research Center’s nationally representative 2021 National Survey of Latinos ( n = 3,019). We regress whether a respondent perceived being stopped unfairly by police in the past year on the Yadon-Ostfeld Skin Color Scale (i.e., 1–10, 10 = Darkest), ethnic origin (i.e., Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Salvadoran, Spaniard, Central American, South American, or other), and citizenship status (i.e., U.S. citizen or not). Results showed that having a darker skin tone and U.S. citizenship were associated with higher odds of experiencing a police stop perceived as unfair. Latinos with the darkest skin tones had nearly a one in five chance of a perceived unfair police stop. Average probabilities of a perceived unfair stop were higher for Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Salvadorans than others followed by Mexicans/Chicanos. Dominicans’ probability was lower than five of the eight other groups. Findings identify heterogeneity among Latino populations such that variation in skin tone, citizenship status, and ethnic origin independently factor into self-reported unfair police stops. Research examining ethnoracial disparities in criminal legal contact and its consequences would benefit from more fully disaggregating panethnic groups.