Police Use of Force by Ethnicity, Sex, and Socioeconomic Class

Abstract

Future research will benefit from additional attention to the cumulative impact of police use of force and how experience with police use of force shapes U.S. residents' understanding of and expectations for procedural justice.

Association of Exposure to Police Violence With Prevalence of Mental Health Symptoms Among Urban Residents in the United States

“… 8 , 10 Furthermore, although there was a higher prevalence of exposure among young adults, males, and black and Latino respondents, all groups experienced some degree of exposure to untoward treatment from the police, 6 consistent with self-reported data collected by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics. 14 …”

The Factors that Motivate Law Enforcement's Use of Force: A Systematic Review

“…Nearly a quarter (21%; n = 4) of studies included social‐level factors. The studies that focused on more than the multi‐level factors such as social and community found that officer relationship to the suspect, geographical location, disproportionate surveillance of people of color, and discriminatory policies were key motivating factors (Jones‐Webb, Calvert, & Brady, 2018; Kahn, McMahon, & Stewart, 2018; Morrow, White, & Fradella, 2017; Motley, & Joe, 2018; Vera Sanchez & Rosenbaum, 2011).…”

“…Although individual factors such as race, age, gender of the suspect, and officer attributes do impact the outcome of an encounter with law enforcement, there are larger societal factors that increase the likelihood of an individual encountering an officer who will exercise unnecessary or fatal use of force (Morrow et al, 2017; Vera Sanchez & Rosenbaum, 2011). We found that the officer’s relationship to the suspect, geographical location, disproportionate surveillance of people of color, and discriminatory policies at the social and community levels are all key multi‐level factors that go beyond individual‐level perspectives to impact an officer’s decision to use force (Kahn et al, 2018; Morrow et al, 2017; Vera Sanchez & Rosenbaum, 2011; Jones‐Webb et al, 2018; Motley, & Joe, 2018). However, it is also clear that many studies in this area narrowly focus on individual motivators—which given the current call for broad reform is too limited in scope.…”

“…Some specific distortions are more likely to occur in tandem with others, whereas some are less likely "other" minority groups were significantly more likely than Whites to have not been attacking the officer(s) or other civilians and that Black civilians were more than twice as likely as White civilians to have been unarmed Nearly a quarter (21%; n = 4) of studies included sociallevel factors. The studies that focused on more than the multi-level factors such as social and community found that officer relationship to the suspect, geographical location, disproportionate surveillance of people of color, and discriminatory policies were key motivating factors (Jones-Webb, Calvert, & Brady, 2018;Kahn, McMahon, & Stewart, 2018;Morrow, White, & Fradella, 2017;Motley, & Joe, 2018;Vera Sanchez & Rosenbaum, 2011).…”

“Can I Live”: Black American Adolescent Boys’ Reports of Police Abuse and the Role of Religiosity on Mental Health

“…Recent empirical work on police abuse found that, when compared to Whites, Blacks are more likely to be fatally shot by law enforcement [17]. While some work has found that women with a history of intimate partner violence and sexual violence [18] and Black women with income levels over $50,000 [19] experience high levels of police abuse, at the national level, Black males are still more likely to experience police abuse [4,19]. Using the African American and Caribbean black adult sample of the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), Oh and colleagues used a questionnaire adapted from the Lifetime Discrimination subscale of the Detroit Area Study Discrimination Questionnaire [20], and among the nine primary discriminatory events experienced, police abuse was the most commonly reported form of discrimination [21].…”