A Social Scientific Approach toward Understanding Racial Disparities in Police Shooting: Data from the Department of Justice (1980–2000)

Scott, Kendra; Debbie, S.; Sadler, Melody; Correll, Joshua

doi:10.1111/josi.12243

Cited by 87 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…However, averaging across shootings may provide an incomplete picture if racial disparities vary across types of fatal shootings. The remaining models (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) separate different types of shootings to test for this variation. No model showed significant evidence of anti-Black or -Hispanic disparity, although evidence for anti-Black and anti-Hispanic disparities was stronger when civilians were young (Model 1 vs. 2).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RETRACTED: Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings

Johnson

Tress

Burkel

et al. 2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Despite extensive attention to racial disparities in police shootings, two problems have hindered progress on this issue. First, databases of fatal officer-involved shootings (FOIS) lack details about officers, making it difficult to test whether racial disparities vary by officer characteristics. Second, there are conflicting views on which benchmark should be used to determine racial disparities when the outcome is the rate at which members from racial groups are fatally shot. We address these issues by creating a database of FOIS that includes detailed officer information. We test racial disparities using an approach that sidesteps the benchmark debate by directly predicting the race of civilians fatally shot rather than comparing the rate at which racial groups are shot to some benchmark. We report three main findings: 1) As the proportion of Black or Hispanic officers in a FOIS increases, a person shot is more likely to be Black or Hispanic than White, a disparity explained by county demographics; 2) race-specific county-level violent crime strongly predicts the race of the civilian shot; and 3) although we find no overall evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities in fatal shootings, when focusing on different subtypes of shootings (e.g., unarmed shootings or "suicide by cop"), data are too uncertain to draw firm conclusions. We highlight the need to enforce federal policies that record both officer and civilian information in FOIS.officer-involved shootings | racial disparity | racial bias | police use of force | benchmarks R ecent high-profile police shootings of Black Americans have raised questions about racial disparities in fatal officerinvolved shootings (FOIS). These shootings have captured public concern, leading in part to the Black Lives Matter movement and a presidential task force on policing (1). Central to this debate are questions of whether Black civilians are overrepresented in FOIS and whether racial disparities are due to discrimination by White officers. However, a lack of data about officers in FOIS and disagreement on the correct benchmark for determining racial disparity in FOIS have led to conflicting conclusions about the degree to which Black civilians are more likely to be fatally shot than White civilians. We address both issues by creating a comprehensive database of FOIS that includes officer information and by using a method for testing racial disparities that does not rely on benchmarks.Until recently, the only nationwide data on FOIS was compiled yearly in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report. On a voluntary basis, departments report the number of justifiable homicides by on-duty law-enforcement officers. Not only are these shootings underreported (by ∼50%; ref.2), such reports do not provide information about the officers or circumstances surrounding these shootings. Beginning in 2015, news companies such as The Washington Post and The Guardian began to collect information about FOIS to address the issues with the FBI data. Through report...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to this 12% benchmark, more Black civilians are fatally shot than we would expect, indicating disparity. News organizations and researchers using this method (12,(15)(16)(17)(18)(19) find robust evidence of anti-Black disparity in fatal shootings.…”

Section: How To Calculate Racial Disparities In Foismentioning

confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings

Johnson

Tress

Burkel

et al. 2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…They were also more likely to use potentially lethal force (i.e., draw a gun) against Black than White suspects (Kramer & Remster, ). Disparities in police officers drawing their weapons translated into disparities in shootings; in 213 metropolitan areas; police officers were more likely to shoot Black than White suspects, even when controlling for racial differences in criminal activity (Scott, Ma, Sadler, & Correll, ). Finally, according to the data in U.S. Police‐Shooting Database, a crowd‐sourced dataset of police shootings in the United States, the odds of an unarmed Black person being shot by police were 3.5 times greater than the odds for a White person (Ross, ).…”

Section: Prevalence Of Racial Disparitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: Prevalence, Causes, and a Search for Solutions

Kovera

2019

Journal of Social Issues

111

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Racial disparities in the criminal justice system are well documented and widespread. The present review examines racial disparities in three areas of the system: policing, prison populations, and participation on juries. Some, but not all, of these disparities may be the result of implicit racial bias. Even if the disparities are caused by implicit racial bias, given the number of people involved in the decision making that results in these disparities and the difficulty in training people to overcome implicit bias, interventions designed to eliminate disparities by reducing implicit racial bias may fail. Instead, policies designed to constrain the operation of implicit and/or explicit bias or that eliminate (or at a minimum reduce) problematic outcomes for everyone, regardless of race, may be more effective at reducing racial disparities than are interventions designed to eliminate implicit bias.

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“…But these types of descriptions are not an anomaly (see Reinka & Leach, ; Scott, Ma, Sadler, & Correll, for other perceptions of police violence). Take, for instance, posthumous characterizations of Eric Garner, a 43‐year‐old unarmed Black man killed in 2014 by New York City Police officer Daniel Pantaleo.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Black Racial Stereotypes and Victim Blaming: Implications for Media Coverage and Criminal Proceedings in Cases of Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Dukes

Gaither

2017

Journal of Social Issues

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Posthumous stereotypical media portrayals of Michael Brown and other racial and ethnic minority victims of police violence have sparked questions about the influence of racial stereotypes on public opinions about their deaths and criminal proceedings for their killers. However, few studies have empirically investigated how the specific type of information released about a victim impacts opinions surrounding such incidents. Participants (N = 453) read about an altercation that resulted in a shooting death where the race of the victim and shooter (Black vs. White) was randomly assigned. Participants learned either negative, Black male stereotypic or positive, Black male counterstereotypic information about the victim. Next, participants appraised levels of fault and blame, sympathy and empathy for the victim and shooter, and indictment recommendations for the shooter. Findings suggest that the type of information released about a victim can significantly sway attitudes toward the victim and the shooter. Implications for media portrayals of racial/ethnic minority victims of police violence and its impact on criminal sentencing are discussed.

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A Social Scientific Approach toward Understanding Racial Disparities in Police Shooting: Data from the Department of Justice (1980–2000)

Cited by 87 publications

References 27 publications

RETRACTED: Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings

RETRACTED: Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings

Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: Prevalence, Causes, and a Search for Solutions

Black Racial Stereotypes and Victim Blaming: Implications for Media Coverage and Criminal Proceedings in Cases of Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities

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