Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

“Using data from The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, logistic regression analyses indicated that darker skin tone significantly increased the odds of suspension for African American adolescents."

“The vast majority of killings of whites are committed by other whites, contrary to some folk wisdom … but killings of black males by white people are labeled justifiable more than eight times as often as others."

“Police homicide risk is higher than suggested by official data. Black and Latino men are at higher risk for death than are White men, and these disparities vary markedly across place."

“Policing, police departments, and individual police officers have a long history of reinforcing the boundaries of race” and “Racial comparisons of police trust thus miss the larger story of legal estrangement emanating in part from racial segregation."

Whether police label an area as “high crime” has more to do with its racial composition than its crime rate.

"[W]hile we do not find evidence of racial discrimination in the application of enhancements, they do act to pronounce the already large disparities in sentencing."

More police contact associated with higher levels of anxiety, trauma, and PTSD. “The burden of police contact in each of these cities falls predominantly on young black and Latino males."

“Pleas attorneys felt they could obtain with a minority client contained higher sentences than those they felt they could obtain with a Caucasian client and were significantly more likely to include some jail time. Reasons … were not due to increased perceptions of guilt."

“This paper substantial evidence of racial disparities in justifiable homicide determinations… In addition, the recent expansion of Stand Your Ground laws in two dozen states appears to worsen the disparity."