The Intersection of Race and Gender In Police-Related Charges: A Study of Resisting and Obstructing Cases In a Public Defender Office

Purpose: Police-related charges, such as resisting and obstructing, often arise out of encounters between officers and community members. Officers' subjective interpretations of community members' behaviors during encounters could be related to race and gender, leading to disparities in charges. Research on these disparities, particularly in public defense spaces, is limited. This study seeks to fill that gap, by addressing the research question: Among individuals charged with police-related offenses, does the likelihood of having only police-related charges (versus police-related charges plus other charges) differ by race, gender, or the intersection of race and gender?

Methods: The sample consisted of clients receiving holistic legal and social support from an urban Midwestern public defender office. We restricted the sample to clients who were Black women, Black men, White women, and White men, as these individuals were the largest racial and gender demographic groups viable for statistical analysis. We further restricted the sample to people with resisting and obstructing charges, which were considered police-related charges.

We conducted three statistical models using R (4.3.1). First, we conducted a Fisher’s Exact Test to detect statistically significant differences in the prevalence of only-target-charge cases across the four race × gender groups. Second, we conducted a main effect analysis with a 2 × 2 table to examine whether race or gender differences were present. Third, to account for small cell sizes, we conducted a Firth’s penalized logistic regression to examine the race × gender interaction. No cases had missing data.

Results: Of the available sample (N = 708), 132 (18.6%) had at least one police-related charge (e.g., resisting/obstructing charge). The analyzed sample comprised 7% Black women, 58% Black men, 9% White women, and 26% White men.

The Fisher's Exact Test detected a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of police-related charges across the four race × gender groups (p < 0.001, Cramér's V = 0.38 [medium effect]). We further found that when comparing all women to all men, women were approximately seven times more likely than men to have cases where the only charges were police-related (OR = 7.43 [95% CI: 2.36 to 28.13], p < .001). We also found that when comparing Black people (n = 85) to White people (n = 47), Black individuals were approximately 60% less likely than White individuals to have only police-related charges (OR = 0.40 [95% CI: 0.18 to 0.89], p = .02). Lastly, the Firth's penalized logistic regression showed no significant differences between Black men vs White men, or Black women vs White men, but significant difference existed between White women vs White men having a police-related charge only (OR = 6.23 [95% CI: 1.51, 36.08], p = .01).

Implications: These findings suggest that police-related charges may be a primary entry point for women into the criminal legal system, and that racial disparities may influence the assignment of additional police-related charges when effectuating arrest for a non-police-related offense. Understanding these patterns could help professionals better advocate for individuals in the criminal legal system.