Profiling: 3 ways to measure the racial gap in Boston

State records show that minorities received 50 percent of the traffic tickets in Boston during a test from April 2001 through June 2003. But is that a lot or a little? Researchers don't know what share of the actual traffic violations in Boston are committed by minorities -- or even what share of the drivers on Boston's roads are minorities -- so they use various estimates for comparison.

THREE DIFFERENT METHODS:

1.

2.

3.

SOURCES: Boston Globe, Northeastern University Institute on Race and Justice.

GLOBE STAFF / SEAN McNAUGHTON and BILL DEDMAN