Is Representation Enough? Racial Disparities in Levels of Force and Arrests by Police

Abstract

The research in representative bureaucracy that examines the extent to which racial congruence impacts bureaucrats' decisions is mixed. This study adds to this literature by examining the impact of representative bureaucracy on the level of force that police officers use and whether they make an arrest in use of force encounters, while taking into consideration key situational conditions. Using individual-level data from New Orleans to estimate this impact, the authors find that racial congruence and incongruence impact policing outcomes even in the presence of situational shortcuts that cue decision-making. The findings show that the benefits of representation are conditional on the outcome. Black officers are less likely to use higher levels of force on Black civilians. Yet both Black and White officers are less likely to arrest White civilians in use of force encounters. This suggests that interactions in which bureaucrats have less discretion (e.g., arrests) may offer limited opportunities for active representation. Evidence for Practice • Black officers, compared with White officers, are less likely to use severe force against Black civilians. • White and Black officers are less likely to arrest White civilians in use of force encounters. • All officers may benefit from understanding how and when racial shortcuts cue their decision-making processes.

Racial Discrimination and Street‐Level Managers: Performance, Publicness, and Group Bias

“…To date, the public administration audit literature has focused predominantly on the racial or ethnic identity of the citizen requesting services. However, public administration scholars have long recognized that understanding citizen–state interactions requires studying “both sides of the desk” (Headley and Wright 2020; Sandfort, Kalil, and Gottschalk 1999). Thus, we explore whether racial discrimination is exacerbated by the alignment of the racial identities of a bureaucrat and a citizen.…”

Spillover Effects of Minority Representation on Majority Bureaucrats’ Behavioral Change

“…Empirical findings, unfortunately, are largely inconclusive (see Bradbury and Kellough 2011 for a review), regardless of policing outcomes in discussion. Some have found supporting evidence of active representation with the presence of Black/Hispanic officers on force (e.g., Headley and Wright 2020;Hong 2017;Smith and Holmes 2003), while others have yielded opposite results, finding that Black officers may treat Black citizens even more harshly (e.g., Brown and Frank 2006;Wilkins and Williams 2008), or in some cases they do not discover direct relationship between racial congruence and officer behavior (e.g., Legewie and Fagan 2016). To reconcile the inconsistencies, Wilkins and Williams (2008) suggest that the unique culture of police departments that effectively socializes members to organizational norms likely prevents the passive-active representation translation.…”

Turn the Page, Speech-Language Pathologists: Adequate, Authentic, and Accurate Representation as a Consideration in the Selection of Picture Books for Use in Treatment

“…Ladson-Billings and Tate (2016) extended critical race theory from law to education and argued that, in order to address racism in education, we must recognize how our practices center Whiteness and promote an assimilationist perspective. Treating all children the same-that is, adopting a color blind approach to treatment-fails to recognize that, by virtue of the color of their skin, some children face greater risk in our society than others do (e.g., Headley & Wright, 2020;Rocque & Patemoster, 2011). This is particularly true for children of color who have communication disorders (Stanford & Muhammad, 2017).…”