Maggie's Farm

That’s what happened after Texas introduced an organized retail crime statute in 2007. Lawmakers defined the crime in such broad terms that any shoplifting could qualify as organized. A few years later, the legislature increased the penalties for organized theft and removed a provision that set the minimum value of stolen goods at $1,500. Now, law enforcement officers had a choice. Anyone caught stealing up to $1,500 of merchandise could either face a typical property theft charge or an organized theft charge, which carries a steeper penalty.

Michael Braun, a statistician at Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, analyzed several years of arrest data for property crime and organized retail theft. He estimates that Black people were arrested and charged with organized retail theft more than twice as often as their White peers. Hispanic people faced the steeper charge 20% more often than White people. The more affluent the city, the higher the disparity.