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The Calculation Of Racial Disparity By Using Multivariate Analysis

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MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS
As previously discussed, the calculation of racial disparity is not quite straight forward. In many times, it entails other factors to be taken into consideration. In this context, we wanted to confirm the above racial disparity calculation by using multivariate analysis. Such analyses are vital for any jurisdiction in order to clearly understand the driven social/economic force(s) behind the racial disparity gap. Given this context, the rest of the study will be related to the results of Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM).
The first interest for HLM analysis is to figure out whether outcome variable of interest (violent arrest counts for this case) has a significant variation at level-2 (neighborhood level). Putting it …show more content…

Given this context, three neighborhood level variables, number of liquor stores, percent vacant houses, and concentrated disadvantage were determined as the best level-2 predictors to explain neighborhood level substantial variance identified by the unconditional model. Table 9 shows the introduction of these three level-2 variables in the HLM equation. When these level-2 predictors are added to unconditional model, level-2’s (intercept, mean level of violent crime arrests) variance component was substantially reduced.
TABLE 9 IS ABOUT HERE
After determining the appropriate level-2 variables, we introduced both level-1 and level-2 variables to the HLM equation. Model 1 of Table 10 includes only level-1 variables. Except population and percent female headed households, all level-1 predictors are significantly associated with the outcome variable. More specifically, violent crime arrest more likely occurs in block groups where poverty is apparent. However, race (Blacks) variable is still significantly related to violent arrest outcome when number of violent crime suspects was controlled at the block group level. That is, Blacks are disproportionately arrested for violent crimes even controlling for their corresponding population and violent crime commission rate. Note that we specified the slope of “Black population” as random in order to see how race

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