Racial Bias in Policing: Why We Know Less Than We Should (original) (raw)
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The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2020
Despite an increase in research relating to racial disparities in policing—particularly in the area of deadly force—there have been comparatively few attempts to theorize which factors predict disparate policing. We fill this gap by combining routine activity theory from criminology with situationist approaches to discrimination from social psychology. We propose that disparate policing is most likely to occur when officers who are vulnerable to situational risk factors for bias encounter citizens who are members of vulnerable out-groups. We argue that situational risk factors for bias and aggression among police provoke feelings of threat and motivate self-protection and/or feelings of disgust and out-group derogation. We present social psychological laboratory research and, where available, field research specific to policing as a way of exploring and bolstering the proposed framework. This work supports an agenda for future scientific research that may assist practitioners in ide...
The current work explored law enforcement officers’ racial bias in decisions to shoot criminal suspects as well as their self-reported beliefs about Black versus White suspects. In addition, this work examined what factors contribute to officers’ racial biases and the likelihood of having these biases eliminated. Examination of the officers’ explicit attitudes toward Black people and their beliefs about the criminality and difficulty of Black suspects revealed strong relationships with the quality of their contact with Black people on the job and in their personal lives. In addition, officers with negative compared to more positive beliefs about the criminality of Black people were more likely to tend toward shooting unarmed Black suspects on a shooting simulation. However, officers with positive contact with Black people in their personal lives were particularly able to eliminate these biases with training on the simulation. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the training of law enforcement personnel.
"More Black Than Blue? Comparing The Racial Attitudes Of Police To Citizens"
Sociological Forum, 2017
How are the racial attitudes of police officers distinct from those of the public? How might the officer’s own race shape those attitudes? Recent high-profile cases of contested uses of lethal force by White police officers against citizens of color has re-animated a long-established debate about the way(s) that race shapes police contact. While research has documented substantial racial disparities across a variety of criminal justice outcomes, little is known about how law enforcement officers might differ from citizens in the way that they think about citizens of color. While some studies of police racial attitudes exist in the research literature, they are often limited by the idiosyncrasies of small and unrepresentative samples. The present study overcomes these limitations by employing the first nationally-representative survey comparing citizens and police a range of racial attitudes. Findings suggest that White police are, indeed, more racially resentful, more likely to see Blacks as violent and more likely to minimize anti-Black discrimination than the White population. Black police officers, however, are not significantly more racially conservative than Black citizens on any of the measures examined, lending modest evidence to the “selection effect” theory of Police Personality.
Explaining Police Bias: A Theory of Social Conditioning and Illusory Correlation
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2007
Although recent empirical research has shown that Blacks and Hispanics are consistently overrepresented among police stops, searches, and arrests, few criminologists have attempted to provide a theoretical explanation for the disparities reported in the research literature. This article proposes a theory of individual police behavior that is grounded in social— psychological research on stereotype formation and that assumes a nonmotivational but biased response to minority citizens by the police. Accordingly, stereotype formation and its consequences are largely unintentional and are driven by social conditioning and the illusory correlation phenomenon, which results in the overestimation of negative behaviors associated with minority group members. After specifying the theory, the article presents a research agenda for empirically testing and verifying its propositions.
The color of safety: The psychology of race and policing
Discussions of issues confronting law enforcement can be enhanced by using a social psychological perspective that emphasizes the importance of contexts’ influence on internal capacities and characteristics to the understanding of human behavior. This chapter shows the utility of such an approach within the context of racial disparities in policing. We focus on judgments of fairness, especially as it pertains to how officers treat people and make decisions, and outline how racial disparities drive the perception that law enforcement is procedurally unfair and serve to erode public trust and support for the law. Attention is then turned to how normal mental functioning that is essential to social behavior can promote such disparities in even the most egalitarian individuals. In particular, we describe (1) the role of implicit racial bias and how automatic associations between racial groups and criminality can motivate differential behavior and (2) the importance of social identity and how threats to that identity can evoke responses that facilitate racial disparities.
The Consequences of Race for Police Officers' Responses to Criminal Suspects, 16 Psychol
2005
The current work examined police officers' decisions to shoot Black and White criminal suspects in a computer simulation. Responses to the simulation revealed that upon initial exposure to the program, the officers were more likely to mistakenly shoot unarmed Black compared with unarmed White suspects. However, after extensive training with the program, in which the race of the suspect was unrelated to the presence of a weapon, the officers were able to eliminate this bias. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the elimination of racial biases and the training of police officers.
The consequences of race for police officers' responses to criminal suspects
Psychological Science, 2005
The current work examined police officers' decisions to shoot Black and White criminal suspects in a computer simulation. Responses to the simulation revealed that upon initial exposure to the program, the officers were more likely to mistakenly shoot unarmed Black compared with unarmed White suspects. However, after extensive training with the program, in which the race of the suspect was unrelated to the presence of a weapon, the officers were able to eliminate this bias. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the elimination of racial biases and the training of police officers.
Risky Situations: Sources of Racial Disparity in Police Behavior
Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 2020
Swencionis & Goff identified five situations that tend to increase the likelihood that an individual police officer may behave in a racially disparate way: discretion, inexperience, salience of crime, cognitive demand, and identity threat. This article applies their framework to the realities of police work, identifying situations and assignments in which these factors are likely to influence officers’ behavior. These insights may identify opportunities for further empirical research into racial disparities in such contexts and may highlight institutional reforms and policy changes that could reduce officers’ vulnerability to risks that can result in racially unjust actions.
Journal of Social Issues, 2017
We analyze data from 213 metropolitan areas over a 21-year period, and examine two possible reasons for the disproportionately high number of Black suspects killed in police officer-involved shootings. One account suggests that such shootings reflect racial bias on the part of police. A second account suggests that Black suspects behave differently (perhaps more aggressively) than White suspects, and that police respond to suspects' behavior (but not race). Our analysis statistically controls for racial differences in criminal activity (a proxy for behavior) and provides a statistical test of the effect of race on police shootings. Results suggest that officers are more likely to shoot Black suspects, even when race-based differences in crime are held constant. In the United States, Black people make up approximately 15% of the population but constitute roughly 40% of the suspects who are shot and killed by police