Eviction is a significant problem among low-class communities, which directly relates to poverty. Disproportionately forced dislocation from housing between various ethnicities calls for researchers to comprehensively analyze such notions, reasoning, and consequences. Establishing a sufficient statistical basis will provide a clear picture of racial disparity in eviction cases, which has a high possibility of influencing further control and policymaking. Despite the high eviction rates, with an estimate of about an annual rate of 1.6 million household displacement, there is no sufficient research that studies the matter from a nationwide perspective (Hepburn et al., 2020). All previous works include data related to a single location, however, lacking a full picture of America’s eviction demographics.
The article “Racial and Gender Disparities among Evicted Americans” explores the pattern of racial inequality among evicted individuals, specifically focusing on African-American and Latinx minorities. The research seeks to determine racial and gender disparities among evicted renters in the United States based on the legal data from 1195 counties (Hepburn et al., 2020). All the information was thoroughly validated, free of duplicates and invalid cases, with only reliable facts. The retrieved records were included in the calculation of statistical conclusions of racial and gender disparities among American evicted households.
The primary hypothesis of the presented work centers upon the statement of inadequate eviction rate distribution between black and white individuals, therefore, proposing the system’s racially prejudiced attitude toward such communities. As a result, the authors expect to demonstrate the disproportion in the eviction based on ethnicity, expecting policymakers to acknowledge and act upon the issue to increase access to affordable housing. Based on the paper’s findings, the hypothesis was correct, indeed confirming a significant disparity in the eviction rates based on race.
The research was published in December 2020; thus, the information provided is relevant and up-to-date. To provide a comprehensive analysis of the issue, the researchers extracted eviction records from 2012 to 2016, storage in the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. A total number of 4.1 million defendants listed in court were analyzed, including 1,195 counties, drawn from 3,663 analyzed country-years, which makes up 37.5 percent of American renter households (Hepburn et al., 2020). The sample size included all counties in the United States that had sufficient, definite data of eviction records of at least one year in the aforementioned time period.
The research presents quantitative data, expressed in graphs and calculations, based on the retrieved statistics. The researchers used the statistical analysis method, which includes analyzing data collected in a statistically valid manner. The author’s utilized court records to examine the racial disparity prevalence throughout the 5 years (Hepburn et al., 2020). The choice of using concrete court records instead of self-reports or surveys was made due to its higher reliability and ability to broadly assess the issue of eviction across different locations at a vast period of time.
To retrieve additional data from the cases, researchers used a Bayesian predictor algorithm, which calculated race probabilities. Such a method allowed to determine necessarily details hidden in the court cases, therefore providing an accurate estimate of the evection rates. The accuracy of such a predictive method is precise, with 94.3 percent of correct predictions with a variance of 0,007, which confirms the method’s feasibility (Hepburn et al., 2020). Such a strategy allowed to determine the ethnicity and race of individuals whose names were not included in the court cases with high accuracy.
The collection of data in the research is followed by the statistical calculation process. The authors reported the eviction filing rate, which I determined by the formula of the number of eviction filings divided by the renter population (Hepburn et al., 2020). Such a step is the first part of the eviction process, after which a major part of tenants leaves their houses. Secondly, the authors identified the eviction rate: the number of eviction judgments divided by the renter population (Hepburn et al., 2020). The correct calculation of the variable facilitates identifying the forcibly removed renters by the court ruling in favor of the homeowner.
The third part of the research methodology is to determine the serial eviction filing rate: the number of individuals who are serially filed against divided by the total number of unique filing recipients (Hepburn et al., 2020). The retrieved data from such statistics demonstrate which ethnicities and minorities are more vulnerable to the forced displacement of are filed against more regularly than others. Collectively, the correctly calculated information from the court files will demonstrate whether there is a racial and ethnic disparity between individuals who get evicted.
As a result of correctly elected methodology, the research has shown the results, which confirmed significant racial disparity among forcefully displaced people. The outcomes demonstrated that black individuals were overrepresented in the sample of evicted households. Such tendency was most vividly apparent in densely populated counties, which is frequently greater than times their share of the renter population.
Moreover, females of Black and Latino ethnicity are under an even higher possibility of being evicted, the research finds (Hepburn et al., 2020). The last finding displayed that black and Latinx renters are more likely to be at risk of serial eviction filings than Caucasian individuals. Thus, the research presented empirical evidence that confirms the prevalence of racial disparity in eviction cases, which was based on reliable facts and methodology.
References
Hepburn, P., Louis, R., & Desmond, M. (2020). Racial and gender disparities among evicted Americans. Sociological Science, 7, 649–662. Web.