Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

“Respondents residing in a majority-Black, high-violence neighborhood were more likely than their coun- terparts in mixed-race or majority-White, lower-crime areas to experience both direct and vicarious harassment or mistreatment at the hands of police."

“A principal concern of this study was to determine African American officers’ perceptions regarding the occurrence of racial profiling within their agencies… Only 8.3% of males disagreed… All female respondents agreed that profiling occurs in their agency (100%)."

“It is clear that Black youth…were overrepresented in stops conducted by Toronto police.” & “The disproportionate stop-and-search rate of Black youth is not an appropriate response to a high crime rate among Black youth and does not represent…efficient police practices."

“New digitized surveillance practices broaden the scope of people law enforcement can track… The likelihood of being inputted into the system is… based on department crime statistics… [potentially reflecting] unequal enforcement… along lines of race [and] class."

“Racially biased perceptions of school staff can influence their observation, interpretation, and implementation of a school discipline protocol. … Researchers have extensively found that students of color are overrepresented in who and how schools choose to discipline."

“Students are now being… charged with crimes for behaviors that teachers and school administrators previously addressed… Studies have consistently found that these… discipline policies have a disproportionate effect on students of color and students with disabilities."

“Research on police officers and stereotype threat suggests that police officers with more confidence in their ability to command respect and handle volatile situations are less likely than…officers without such confidence to shoot noncompliant but unarmed Black suspects."

“British police have fatally shot only one person wielding a knife since 2008—a hostage-taker… US police have fatally shot more than 575 people allegedly wielding blades… since 2013. Racism helps explain why African Americans… are particularly vulnerable to police."

“The racially skewed exercise of police discretion ensures that the net of criminality is cast broadly for people of color and is… rather narrow for White Americans. This over-breath, in turn ensures that ‘checks’ for criminality structurally disadvantage people of color."