Neighborhood inequality in government fines: The case of parking tickets in 16 U.S. cities

A common way citizens interact with the legal system is through parking tickets. Existing literature suggests that there is a relationship between parking tickets and neighborhood characteristics, particularly higher rates in economically vulnerable and historically marginalized neighborhoods. The current research is limited to a select number of cities. We seek to examine if these relationships exist at a larger geographical scale. Specifically, we investigate the spatial distribution of parking tickets across 16 U.S. cities. Employing multivariate regression models, we examine the relationship between neighborhood parking ticket rates and racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition at the block group level. We found that percent Hispanic and percent poor are positively associated with total parking tickets, and parking tickets for violations, days of the week, and times of the day that may be more likely to be issued to neighborhood residents. While percent Black exhibits no association with total parking tickets, it is positively associated with tickets issued by police officers, revealing the complicated relationship between infrastructure, policing, and race.