A Large-Scale Study of the Police Retention Crisis

Grunwald, Ben

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4871954

2024

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4871954

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A Large-Scale Study of the Police Retention Crisis

Ben Grunwald

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2024

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Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

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Early adolescent attitudes toward the police post-Floyd

Rogers,

Melde,

Williams

et al. 2024

Journal of Crime and Justice

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Early adolescent attitudes toward the police post-Floyd

Rogers,

Melde,

Williams

et al. 2024

Journal of Crime and Justice

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Guest editorial: Police staffing: global perspectives and local realities

Adams,

Mourtgos,

Wilson

2024

PIJPSM

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Do austerity cuts spare police budgets? Welfare‐to‐carceral realignment during fiscal crises

Beck

2024

Criminology

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Did governments shift funding from their social welfare functions to their criminal justice functions after the 1980s? Studies investigating this possible “punitive turn” have been inconclusive and have been conducted at the state or national scale. Cities, however, are increasingly important as government responsibility devolves downward and social movements target municipal police budgets. This study contributes to ongoing academic and political debates about welfare‐state retrenchment and police department funding using data on 390 U.S. cities between 1990 and 2019. In contrast to conventional explanations for budgetary restructuring that foreground across‐the‐board cuts or macroeconomic causes, this study proposes a fiscal crisis model that emphasizes localized budget deficits, beliefs about policing's primacy, and police agencies’ political power. Data reveal gradual and considerable municipal budgetary restructuring toward law enforcement between 1990 and 2019, with police funding growing 32% relative to social spending. Fixed‐effects regression models with asymmetric predictors find that when municipal revenues fell by 10%, cities reduced police expenditures by an associated 1% and social service expenditures by 4%, with parks and housing seeing the biggest cuts. During austerity, municipalities cut police shallowly and temporarily while cutting social services deeply and enduringly, accelerating welfare‐to‐carceral realignment.

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A Large-Scale Study of the Police Retention Crisis

Cited by 3 publications

References 31 publications

Early adolescent attitudes toward the police post-Floyd

Early adolescent attitudes toward the police post-Floyd

Guest editorial: Police staffing: global perspectives and local realities

Do austerity cuts spare police budgets? Welfare‐to‐carceral realignment during fiscal crises

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