The Determinants of Deadly Force: A Structural Analysis of Police                         Violence

Jacobs, David; O’Brien, Robert M.

doi:10.1086/231291

Cited by 336 publications

(359 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…For instance, Wilson's (1968) classic study of police organization devotes an entire chapter to the ways that local political culture (influenced heavily by variation across local political systems) influences the style of policing. Other more recent research suggests that local politics affects criminal justice outcomes such as violence (Jacobs & Carmichael, 2002;Jacobs & O'Brien, 1998;Jacobs & Wood, 1999;Stucky, 2003), minority police employment (Kerr & Mladenka, 1994;Salzstein, 1989) and the imposition of citizen police review boards (Salzstein, 1989). In addition, many police executives believe that local politics influences staffing decisions (Koper & Moore, 2001).…”

Section: Local Politics and Police Strengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local politics and police strength

Stucky¹

2005

Justice Quarterly

102

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Section: Local Politics and Police Strengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local politics and police strength

Stucky¹

2005

Justice Quarterly

102

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“…While these studies highlight the influence of structural factors on the perceived and actual behavior of the police and police use of force, one notable limitation is that much of the previous research uses a single site or area. The majority of city-level studies on police use of force also focus on its most infrequent but serious application-the use of deadly force (see e.g., Jacobs & Britt, 1979;Jacobs & O'Brien, 1998). Unfortunately, many of these studies failed to report basic descriptive information about the organizational characteristics of law enforcement agencies across cities, which limits our knowledge of why use of deadly force rates fluctuate so significantly between police departments (Geller & Scott, 1992).…”

Section: * Macro-level Police Use Of Force Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Threat, Urban Conditions and Police Use of Force: Assessing the Direct and Indirect Linkages across Multiple Urban Areas

Parker

MacDonald

Jennings

et al. 2005

Justice Research and Policy

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Traditionally explanations of police use of force have relied on a racial threat perspective. Tests of this perspective, however, typically offer a single indicator of threat (the relative size of the black population) and fail to adequately take into account the complex relationship between racial threat and police use of force. Drawing on racial threat, social disorganization, and police use of force literature, this study hypothesizes that macro-level patterns in police use of force are embedded in the racial and structural composition of cities and the organizational climate of local politics and police departments. The present study examines these relationships using official police use of force data collected in 73 large U.S. cities. Structural equation analyses suggest that structural indicators associated with racial threat and social disorganization/disadvantage impact police use of force indirectly through the influence of police organizational factors. On the other hand, the political climate and the level of social disorganization in urban areas have a direct bearing on the rates of police use of force. The implications of these findings for research and theory on police use of force are discussed.

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“…In addition, much of the research focuses on violence (e.g. Jacobs and Carmichael 11 2002;Jacobs and O'Brien 1998;Jacobs and Wood 1999;Parker et al 2005). 5 Therefore, the current study focuses on Black violent crime arrests.…”

Section: Dependent Variablementioning

confidence: 99%

The Conditional Effects of Race and Politics on Social Control

Stucky

2011

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

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Numerous studies of the determinants of formal social control of Blacks focus on racial threat arguments, which contain implicit or explicit political elements. Using insights from research on politics and social control more generally, this article argues that the relationship between variation in the racial composition of a city and social control of minorities will be conditional on characteristics of the local political system. Hypotheses are tested using pooled cross-sectional time-series data on 100 large U.S. cities in 1970, 1980, and 1990. Contrary to expectations, Black violent crime arrest rates are curvilinearly negatively associated with larger percentages of Black residents. As predicted, the relationship between the percentage of Black residents and Black violent crime arrest rates is conditional on city political system characteristics (elected mayors, district council elections, and partisan ballots), the race of the mayor, and the percentage of city council members who are Black.

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The Determinants of Deadly Force: A Structural Analysis of Police Violence

Cited by 336 publications

References 24 publications

Local politics and police strength

Local politics and police strength

Racial Threat, Urban Conditions and Police Use of Force: Assessing the Direct and Indirect Linkages across Multiple Urban Areas

The Conditional Effects of Race and Politics on Social Control

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