Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

[Brazil] “Controlling for all the considered individual level characteristics, verbal and physical victimization probability is statistically … higher for darker skin tone individuals… This pattern confirms … discrimination in the use of police force."

“The toxic stress caused by racism…the need for new rules and standards to reduce extreme racial disparities in arrests for low-level offenses—disparities that are a cause of so much stress and trauma for African Americans."

“Our findings indicated a consistent and statistically significant phenomenon that privileges light-skinned adolescents in their encounters with the police. Light-skinned teens were significantly less likely to be stopped by the police than other teens."

“Using a sample of 12,376 sworn law enforcement officers in 98 agencies… Officers perceiving [low public support of police] … become much more distrustful of the public, and are more likely to justify the use of coercive tactics in the course of police work."

* Frivolous race-based police calls “are particularly dangerous for Black people because they are rooted in private acts of force that are given legitimacy by law when White citizens enlist the police to enforce racial boundaries."*

Contact with police is a key vector through which children…come under the scrutiny of child welfare systems" & “Disparities originating in criminal justice may drift across organizational boundaries to reinforce the deep racial inequalities…of American child protection."

“Vicarious police contact among blacks and personal contact among Hispanics both shared a stronger inverse association with self-reported health than among whites. … Police contact is more strongly linked to worse self-reported health among nonwhites."

“We find that racial prejudice has a positive effect on the beliefs that police violence is justified. Finally, we find that among white respondents with higher levels of racial prejudice, police violence against black citizens is perceived as more justified."