Full Citation

Title: Racial Threat, Social (Dis)organization, and the Ecology of Police: Towards a Macro-level Understanding of Police Use-of-force in Communities of Color

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2019

ISBN:

ISSN: 0741-8825

DOI: 10.1080/07418825.2018.1480792

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: In this paper, we examine use-of-force incidents as neighborhood processes to understand how rates and levels of use-of-force vary across New York City. We suggest that there are two distinct outcomes of force by the police: number of use-of-force incidents and level of force. Applying theories of racial threat, social disorganization, and Klinger’s ecological theory of policing, we conceptualize use-of-force as a neighborhood phenomenon rather than individual events. Our results suggest that rates and levels of force operate in some distinct ways. In particular, while we find that use-of-force is concentrated in Black neighborhoods, and is also more severe in Black neighborhoods, neighborhoods with higher racial and ethnic heterogeneity have decreasing force incidents, but with increasing severity. This may reflect different types of policing, with high rates of low-level police harassment occurring in primarily poorer, Black neighborhoods, and more isolated but severe incidents occurring in middle-income and wealthier mixed neighborhoods.

Url: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07418825.2018.1480792

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Lautenschlager, Rachel; Omori, Marisa

Periodical (Full): Justice Quarterly

Issue: 6

Volume: 36

Pages: 1050-1071

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Crime and Deviance, Race and Ethnicity

Countries: United States