Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

“Individuals are less supportive of police drones in Caucasian neighborhoods than in African-American neighborhoods.” & “Participants had significantly different support for police UAS usage dependent on the ra- cial composition of the neighborhood.” (@emilyanania)

“Police officers may see no strategic advantage in wasting time and cognitive resources on the routine problems that provide the bulk of their day-to-day work… Racial/ethnic stereotypes facilitate rapid dispositional inferences about the likely outcomes of interactions."

“Analyzing policing material…indicators that are being taught to police as evidence of danger and an imminent attack may also be signs of stereotype threat, which can lead police to potentially misinterpret a situation… An innocent citizen…may display these behaviors."

“In… police reports, law enforcement personnel regularly expressed negative, stereotyping beliefs about sexual assault victims… [e.g.,] prostitutes… their own fault… Police appeared to have no compunction expressing such opinions about African American… survivors."

“Cases involving victims of color… are likely to have more investigatory blame justifications as compared with White victims, meaning they are likely to have fewer investigative steps completed and ultimately less likely to have an arrest, a referral, or both."

“These results suggest that Black girls are viewed as more adult than their white peers at almost all stages of childhood.” & “School-based police officers, among others, may also be more likely to view Black girls as older and less innocent."

“The main conclusion flowing from the present study is that black and Latino officers seem to view citizens more favorably than white officers do. They are significantly more likely to believe that victims deserve police assistance and that they are genuinely helping people”

“It is significantly more likely that assaults involving White male stranger attacks on Black females will result in declined prosecution and never proceed to an arrest or formal case filing” compared with Black male stranger attacks on White females.

“A history of mental illness decreased support for police force for White suspects, but increased support for police force for Black suspects.” & “Only those… [with] warm feelings about Blacks… [had] less support for police force against mentally ill Black suspects."