Meaning

(transitive) To arrest at a disproportionately high rate..

Example Sentences

The emphasis on prosecution and conviction as metrics of success leads police and prosecutors to overarrest, overprosecute, and overpunish low-level drug and other crimes in many cases.

Sorry, I’m Italian, and let’s say I see that Sicilian policemen arrest less people in Sicily. This could be for two reasons, one is that everybody else overarrests, or the Sicilian policemen underarrest. And can you tell those two things apart?

Criminal justice reform has become a national topic of discussion given recent police killings of Black men, and Jones points out that he's been a longtime activist on this issue, with his experience in Palo Alto and as an NAACP youth organizer. Also, he notes, as a Black man, "People like me are overpoliced, overarrested, overprosecuted."

So if you live in a zip code that has been overpoliced historically, you are going to have overarresting. And we know that the overpolicing and the overarresting happens in Black and Latino communities. That's just a fact.

Word Forms

• overarrests
• overarresting
• overarrested

Antonyms for overarrest

When Should You Use Overarrest?

Use overarrest when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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