Privileged protection? Effects of suspect race and mental illness status on public perceptions of police use of force

Racial disparities in police use-of-force: a state-of-the-art review

“…A variety of methodologies were used in the study of race and police use of force. Ten studies used an analysis of official records and police use of force reports (Alpert, Dunham and MacDonald, 2004; Crow and Adrion, 2011; Fridell and Lim, 2016; Kahn, Thompson and McMahon, 2017; Leinfelt, 2005; Lersch et al , 2008; Parker et al , 2005; Terrill and Paoline, 2017; Terrill et al , 2006; Williams and Hester, 2003), while two studies used a more specific focus on force in adult custody arrests (Crawford and Burns, 2008; Garner et al , 2002). One study used officer-involved shooting data (Duran and Loza, 2017), three studies used LEMAS data (Hickman and Piquero, 2009; Smith and Holmes, 2014; Trochmann and Gover, 2016), and two studies used the NYPD Stop and Frisk Data (Lee, 2016; Legewie, 2016).…”

“…A variety of statistical and other analysis techniques were used to analyze the relationship between race and use of force. One study used an independent samples t- test (Girgenti-Malone et al , 2017), four studies used a cross-tabulation-based measure (Alpert, Dunham and MacDonald, 2004; Duran and Loza, 2017; Weitzer and Tuch, 2004; Williams and Hester, 2003), and two studies used an ANOVA (Chapman, 2012; Kahn, Thompson and McMahon, 2017). Three studies used bivariate correlations (Arthur and Case, 1994; Hickman and Piquero, 2009; Smith and Holmes, 2003).…”

“…These included Crow and Adrion’s (2011) study of a medium-sized police department (no location provided), Fridell and Lim’s (2016) study of a large urban police department in Texas, Kahn and colleagues’ (2017) study of a medium to large size urban police department (no location provided), Leinfelt’s (2005) study of a Midwestern USA jurisdiction with 50 sworn officers, Lersch and colleagues’ (2008) study of a large municipal police department in the southeastern USA, and Terrill et al ’s (2006) study of a small police agency in the upper-midwest. Nine studies used a single site and studied locations such as: Cincinnati, Ohio (Jefferis et al , 1997); Denver, Colorado (Duran and Loza, 2017); Miami-Dade, Florida (Alpert et al , 2004); New York City, New York (Lee, 2016; Legewie, 2016); Phoenix, Arizona (Schuck, 2004); Polk County, Florida (Williams and Hester, 2003); Portland, Oregon (Kahn, Thompson and McMahon, 2017; Thompson et al , 2016).…”

“…Studies used a variety of outcome measures to assess police use of force. Twelve studies incorporated approval of or perceptions of police use of force as the outcome measure (Arthur and Case, 1994; Chapman, 2012; Girgenti-Malone et al , 2017; Halim and Stiles, 2001; Jefferis et al , 1997; Johnson and Kuhns, 2009; Kahn, Thompson and McMahon, 2017; Phillips, 2010; Rome et al , 1995; Silver and Pickett, 2015; Thompson and Lee, 2004; Thompson et al , 2016). One study used a similar measure – perceptions of misconduct – that included measurement of perceptions of use of force (Weitzer and Tuch, 2004), and one study examined the likelihood that an officer would report another officer for use of force based on a vignette (Phillips, 2010).…”

“…Four studies used Total Force (prevalence of force) (Chapman, 2012; Garner et al , 2002; Hickman et al , 2008; Lersch et al , 2008), which was also broken down into low force incidents, high force incidents, and active resistance incidents (Lersch et al , 2008). In all, 14 studies used various measures of force level or severity (Chapman, 2012; Crawford and Burns, 2008; Fridell and Lim, 2016; Garner et al , 2002; Hickman et al , 2008; Kahn, Thompson and McMahon, 2017; Kahn, Steele, McMahon and Stewart, 2017; Lee, 2016; Legewie, 2016; Leinfelt, 2005; Schuck, 2004; Terrill and Paoline, 2017; Terrill and Reisig, 2003; Terrill et al , 2006; Williams and Hester, 2003) such as a measure of five steps on use of force continuum (Crawford and Burns, 2008), maximum force severity (Garner et al , 2002; Lee, 2016; Terrill and Paoline, 2017; Terrill and Reisig, 2003), amount of force used (Kahn, Thompson and McMahon, 2017; Kahn, Steele, McMahon and Stewart, 2017), and a binary indicator of force (Legewie, 2016; Leinfelt, 2005; Schuck, 2004; Williams and Hester, 2003). Four studies included measures of the type of force used (Crow and Adrion, 2011; Duran and Loza, 2017; Hickman et al , 2008; Terrill and Paoline, 2017), with two focusing on the use of a TASER (Crow and Adrion, 2011; Terrill and Paoline, 2017) and one that included a dichotomous measure of shooting-related death vs shooting with no death (Duran and Loza, 2017).…”