The role of officer race and gender in police-civilian interactions in Chicago

Ba, Bocar; Knox, Dean; Mummolo, Jonathan; Rivera, Roman

doi:10.1126/science.abd8694

Cited by 192 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…These findings contribute to several theoretical and applied questions. First, I advance a broad literature on diversity in public institutions (1,4,7,8,13,33), by considering a relatively unexplored positive externality of diversity and minority representation in the realm of health care provision. My evidence suggests that in addition to improving health outcomes (7,8,13), diversity in health care provision can facilitate positive intergroup contact, which reduces prejudice and promotes inclusive attitudes among majority group members.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…prejudice reduction | diversity | health care provision A rich social scientific literature demonstrates that diverse and representative institutions provide better outcomes for minority group members (1). Specifically, recent evidence demonstrates that diversity in institutions can improve policing (2)(3)(4), education (5,6), and health outcomes (7,8). Nonetheless, whether and how the demographic makeup of public institutions affects intergroup relations and specifically, majority group members' attitudes toward minorities remain unclear.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Diversity in health care institutions reduces Israeli patients’ prejudice toward Arabs

Weiss

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Diversity in the lines of public institutions, such as hospitals, schools, and police forces, is thought to improve provision for minority group members. Nonetheless, whether and how diversity in public institutions shapes majority citizens’ prejudice toward minorities are unclear. Building on insights from the intergroup contact literature, I suggest that diversity in public institutions can facilitate positive intergroup contact between majority group members and minorities in elevated social positions. Such unique interactions, which exceed the equal status condition for effective intergroup contact, can serve to reduce prejudice and facilitate more inclusive attitudes among majority group members. To test this expectation, I focus on health care provision—a leading sector with regard to minority representation. Leveraging a natural experiment unfolding in 21 Israeli medical clinics where Jewish patients are haphazardly assigned to receive care from Jewish or Arab doctors and embedding prejudice-related questions in a routine evaluation survey, I demonstrate that brief contact with an Arab doctor reduces prejudice. Specifically, contact with an Arab doctor reduces Jewish patients’ exclusionary preferences toward Arabs by one-sixth of an SD and increases Jewish patients’ optimism about peace by a 10th of an SD. The modest magnitude of these effects is similar to the impact of well-powered interventions recently reviewed in a meta-analysis of prejudice reduction experiments. These findings emphasize how the demographic makeup of public institutions can reduce mass prejudice, even in a context of intractable conflict.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity in health care institutions reduces Israeli patients’ prejudice toward Arabs

Weiss

2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…All remaining covariates were evaluated continuously. Although the link between agency diversity and police killings is not well-established [ 68 , 90 ], use of force has been shown to vary by officer race and gender [ 20 , 92 – 94 ] suggesting that agency demographic composition may have implications for policy implementation; hence, we controlled for both racial and gender diversity. Gender diversity measured the number of female sworn personnel among all sworn personnel.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

US law enforcement policy predictors of race-specific police fatalities during 2015–16

et al. 2021

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Mounting evidence suggests that law enforcement organizational factors contribute to higher incidence and racial disparities in police killings. To determine whether agency policies contribute to race-specific civilian fatalities, this exploratory study compared fatality rates among agencies with and without selected policies expected to reduce killings. A cross-section of 1085 fatalities in the 2015–2016 The Counted public-use database were matched to 481 agencies in the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) database. Negative binomial regression estimated incidence rate ratios (IRR) adjusted for agency type, number of officers, percent female personnel, median income, percent with a bachelor’s degree, violent crime rate, and population size, with inference using robust standard errors. Agencies with greater proportions of full-time personnel (range 43–100%) had lower rates of all (IRR = 0.85; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.77–0.93) and non-White civilian killings (IRR = 0.85; CI = 0.73–0.99). Mission statements predicted lower rates of all (IRR = 0.70; CI = 0.58–0.84) and White killings (IRR = 0.60; CI = 0.40–0.90). Community evaluation and more types of personnel incentives predicted lower rates of White (IRR = 0.82; CI = 0.68–0.99) and non-White killings (IRR = 0.94; CI = 0.89–1.00), respectively. Increasing video use predicted higher rates of White killings (IRR = 1.13; CI = 1.01–1.28). No policies were significantly associated with Black civilian killings. Law enforcement policies that help reduce police killings may vary across racial groups with the least benefit for Black civilians. Impact evaluations and meta-analyses of initiatives aimed to mitigate fatalities should be explored, particularly policies to address anti-Black bias. A national registry tracking all police killings and agency policies is urgently needed to inform law enforcement policies aimed to mitigate civilian fatalities.

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“…Yet in predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods, White officers are five times as likely to use their guns on civilians than peer officers (Hoekstra & Sloan 2020). Ba et al (2021) leveraged daily officer patrol shifts to avoid measurement error that may have confounded earlier studies of officer diversity. Their results indicate that White male officers in Chicago make more stops and arrests and use force more frequently than their colleagues, especially in Black neighborhoods, and this sizable disparity is driven by White officers' higher enforcement of low-level, nonviolent offenses (Ba et al 2021).…”

Section: Possible Causes Of Disparities: Bad Apples Psychological Bias and Network Of Misconductmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Slow Violence of Contemporary Policing

Kramer

Remster

2022

Annu. Rev. Criminol.

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An estimated 60 million Americans encounter police annually and more than one million are threatened or subjected to police use of force during these encounters. Much research exists on the efficacy for crime control of the policing practices that produce those encounters, but outside of formal consequences such as incarceration, the criminology of police harms has been slower to emerge. In this review, we describe the slow violence that contemporary policing practices disproportionately inflict on people of color. These wide-ranging harms constitute cultural trauma and shape health, well-being, academic performance, government participation, community membership, and physical space. As a result, routine policing practices help create and maintain the racial and class status quo. We close by considering the limits of popular reforms given those harms and urge researchers to take a broader approach by studying nonpolicing alternatives to public safety alongside crime control efficacy and incorporating more critical perspectives to build a more comprehensive assessment of modern policing practices. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 5 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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The role of officer race and gender in police-civilian interactions in Chicago

Cited by 192 publications

References 27 publications

Diversity in health care institutions reduces Israeli patients’ prejudice toward Arabs

Diversity in health care institutions reduces Israeli patients’ prejudice toward Arabs

US law enforcement policy predictors of race-specific police fatalities during 2015–16

The Slow Violence of Contemporary Policing

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