Studies

Research on racial bias in policing

“Despite stereotypes to the contrary—black mixed-race men do not experience any privilege on the basis of their proximity to whiteness and extended white sociality, in the context of police contact."

"[We] examine the effects of a lethal force incident on … assessments of police… The police shooting and [its] handling civil unrest… resulted in no major initial shifts in attitude by non-Black residents… African Americans felt considerably more distrustful."

“Readers' memories of Afrocentric features are significantly more pronounced when the news stories concern … violent crime… [In reconstructing photos displayed in crime stories] Afrocentric features were significantly more pronounced than the actual photograph depicted."

“Whites have long been overrepresented in … white-collar crime such as corporate crime, investment fraud, and securities fraud.” & “We have… a view of race as having a single impact on crime based on disadvantage, without examining… crime… [based on] advantage."

“Racial discrimination in school discipline is a real problem.” & “A police officer’s regular presence at a school is predictive of greater odds that school officials refer students to law enforcement for … lower-level offenses that … teachers should handle themselves."

“News coverage did not emphasize the peaceful [BLM protest] activities; instead, activities were most often covered when conflict occurred.” & “It is much harder for peaceful protests… to get any media attention… Media gave less space to the… agendas of protesters."

“Poorly performing police were evaluated more positively when operating in a predominantly African American community than when… operating in a predominantly White community… It may be that participants expect less… from police… [in] African American communities."

A ten-minute in-home “positive, non-enforcement police–public interaction” improves attitudes toward police, especially “among racial minorities and those who held the most negative views toward police at baseline. [This] underscores the power of positive contact."

“Big data policing must acknowledge that race is still part of modern policing… This admission pushes back against the facile claim that the issue of race can be removed by ‘objective,’ data-driven policing or that new big data technologies avoid racially biased effects."