Killings of Police in U.S. Cities since 1980: An Examination of Environmental and Political Explanations

Most research on killings of police in urban areas attempted to link lethal violence against officers to the violence and disorder in the communities they work.Yet support for this relationship is inconsistent. Fewer studies considered whether local political arrangements affect killings of police. This study attempts to remedy this gap by using recent data to investigate the relationship between the political conditions of large U.S. cities and the number of homicides of police officers in the line of duty in the years 1980, 1990, and 2000. Negative binomial regression analyses suggest that racial income inequality and the size of the Black population are positively associated with killings of police but cities with African American mayors have less killings. Police killings of citizens are also positively related to officer killings. The results largely support political explanations and uncover time-contingent effects of segregation on violence against state representatives

Killings of Police in U.S. Cities since 1980: An Examination of Environmental andPolitical Explanations

Most research on killings of police in urban areas attempted to link lethal violence against officers to the violence and disorder in the communities they work. Yet support for this relationship is inconsistent. Fewer studies considered whether local political arrangements affect killings of police. This study attempts to remedy this gap by using recent data to investigate the relationship between the political conditions of large U.S. cities and the number of homicides of police officers in the line of duty in the years 1980, 1990, and 2000. Negative binomial regression analyses suggest that racial income inequality and the size of the Black population are positively associated with killings of police but cities with African American mayors have less killings. Police killings of citizens are also positively related to officer killings. The results largely support political explanations and uncover time-contingent effects of segregation on violence against state representatives

Killings of Police in U.S. Cities since 1980: An Examination of Environmental andPolitical Explanations

Most research on killings of police in urban areas attempted to link lethal violence against officers to the violence and disorder in the communities they work. Yet support for this relationship is inconsistent. Fewer studies considered whether local political arrangements affect killings of police. This study attempts to remedy this gap by using recent data to investigate the relationship between the political conditions of large U.S. cities and the number of homicides of police officers in the line of duty in the years 1980, 1990, and 2000. Negative binomial regression analyses suggest that racial income inequality and the size of the Black population are positively associated with killings of police but cities with African American mayors have less killings. Police killings of citizens are also positively related to officer killings. The results largely support political explanations and uncover time-contingent effects of segregation on violence against state representatives

Social Divisions and Coercive Control in Advanced Societies: Law Enforcement Strength in Eleven Nations from 1975 to 1994.

Conflict theory suggests that economic stratification poses a threat to order, so we should expect increased inequality to lead to a greater capacity for coercive control. The police are the primary agency that uses force to preserve order, yet we know little about the effects of economic divisions on police size in advanced nations besides the United States. The generality of findings based on a fixed-effects panel design applied to 11 developed nations should provide increased insight about how coercion is used to preserve domestic order. Other social divisions that should matter include minority presence and unemployment. With economic development, urbanism, crime, and social disorganization held constant, economic inequality and crime rates in the last years of the sample matter, but minority presence explains police strength only in the United States. The results suggest that threats to internal stability due to economic stratification are most likely to produce subsequent expansions in formal social control. These findings should help resolve disputes about which potentially destabilizing social divisions provide the most general explanation for shifts in the strength of state agencies that specialize in domestic control

Social Divisions and Coercive Control in Advanced Societies: Law Enforcement Strength in Eleven Nations from 1975 to 1994.

Conflict theory suggests that economic stratification poses a threat to order, so we should expect increased inequality to lead to a greater capacity for coercive control. The police are the primary agency that uses force to preserve order, yet we know little about the effects of economic divisions on police size in advanced nations besides the United States. The generality of findings based on a fixed-effects panel design applied to 11 developed nations should provide increased insight about how coercion is used to preserve domestic order. Other social divisions that should matter include minority presence and unemployment. With economic development, urbanism, crime, and social disorganization held constant, economic inequality and crime rates in the last years of the sample matter, but minority presence explains police strength only in the United States. The results suggest that threats to internal stability due to economic stratification are most likely to produce subsequent expansions in formal social control. These findings should help resolve disputes about which potentially destabilizing social divisions provide the most general explanation for shifts in the strength of state agencies that specialize in domestic control

Minority Threat And Police Strength From 1980 To 2000: A Fixed-Effects Analysis Of Nonlinear And Interactive Effects In Large U.S. Cities

Many studies have assessed threat theory by investigating the relationships between the size of minority populations and police strength. Yet these investigations analyzed older data with cross-sectional designs. This study uses a fixed-effects panel design to detect nonlinear and interactive relationships between minority presence and the per capita number of police in large U.S. cities in the last three census years. The findings show that the relationship between racial threat and the population-corrected number of police officers has recently become considerably stronger. In accord with theoretically based expectations, tests for interactions show that segregated cities with larger African American populations have smaller departments. The coefficients on another interaction effect suggest that racial segregation leads to reductions in police strength in the South perhaps because officers are less likely to intervene in residentially isolated black neighborhoods in this region

The Determinants of Executions Since 1951: How Politics, Protests, Public Opinion, and Social Divisions Shape Capital Punishment

This time-series study uses hypotheses derived from a politically refined version of conflict theory to explain both public support for the death penalty and the number of executions. With murders in death penalty states and Supreme Court decisions held constant, tests of hypotheses about lags suggest that public support and Republican strength in the states influence yearly executions by their effects on death sentences rather than the later appeals process. Other dynamic results show that national level Republican strength, presidential elections that emphasize law and order, economic inequality, and higher murder rates increase yearly executions because they affect the extremely influential but later appeals process. Civil rights protests, however, immediately reduce both public support and executions. Although minority threat enhances public support for capital punishment, this contextual factor does not explain executions. These results are unique as no prior studies have assessed the conditions that determine how often the harshest punishment is used

The Use of Lethal Force by Canadian Police Officers: Assessing the Influence of Female Police Officers and Minority Threat Explanations on Police Shootings Across Large Cities

This study examines the applicability of several theoretically derived accounts used to explain the variations in police killings across 39 of Canada’s largest cities over a 15-year period. Pooled time-series negative binomial regression results are consistent with the ethnic threat hypothesis by indicating that lethal police action is associated with the size of the ethnic minority population in each city. Political accounts are supported as non-linear specifications suggest that once ethnic minorities reach a numerical majority in our sample of cities there is a decline in police killings. Findings also support expectations that greater female representation within policing will reduce the use of lethal force by changing the overall culture of the department. Theoretical implications of our findings are discussed

Race, poverty, and the traffic ticket cycle Exploring the situational context of the application of police discretion

Purpose – Through systematic observation of police decision-making behavior, the aim of this paper is to investigate what factors differentiate between citizens who receive a warning vs a ticket from police and whether the influence of those factors varies by race. The paper also explores the context of those decisions for both blacks and whites to further the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of any observed differences in the likelihood of receiving a ticket vs a warning. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected during police ridealongs conducted in a sample of cities within Cuyahoga County, Ohio. A total of 140 ridealongs were completed, yielding a total of 312 vehicle or citizen stops. Findings – The paper finds that black citizens are more likely to receive a ticket than white citizens. However, the paper also finds important differences in the situational context of traffic stops for blacks and whites and uncover evidence of a cycle of traffic tickets and license suspensions among some black drivers. Research limitations/implications – The study demonstrates the importance of examining the underlying situational context in analyses of decision making in traffic stops. The main limitation of the analyses is that the data were limited to one county in the state of Ohio. Practical implications – The data suggests that one of the causes of the racial disparities in tickets vs warnings involves a cycle of tickets and license suspensions that occurs among some black drivers. These drivers appear to become caught up in a cycle where a compilation of prior tickets from traffic infractions, driving without insurance, or defaulting on child support payments leads to high numbers of points and subsequent license suspensions. The paper discusses some practical implications for addressing this pattern, including specific programs that could be adopted by municipalities that seek to break the cycle of repeated violation of driver’s license laws. Originality/value – Beyond identifying the impact of citizen race on the likelihood of receiving a warning vs a ticket during a traffic stop, this study contributes to the existing literature by exploring the situational context of these decisions, and identifying the ways in which variations in situational contexts help explain racial differences in outcomes in traffic stops. The identification of a traffic ticket cycle among some black drivers appears to be an original finding

Racial Residential Segregation and Social Control: A Panel Study of the Variation in Police Strength Across U.S Cities, 1980–2010

Despite a great deal of theoretical and empirical attention given to racial residential segregation and its influence on a number of social problems in the United States, few scholars have examined the role that this persistent form of racial inequality plays in shaping the magnitude of formal social control efforts. Our study examines this relationship by assessing the potential influence that the isolation of minorities may have on efforts to control crime in urban centers across the United States. Using a pooled time-series regression technique well suited for the analysis of aggregate, longitudinal data, we assess the potential influence of racial segregation on the size of municipal police departments in 170 U.S. cities between 1980 and 2010. After accounting for minority group size, economic threat, crime, and disorganization, we find that racial residential segregation has a significant non-linear effect on police force size. Cities with the most racially integrated populations have the smallest police presence but at very high levels of segregation, police strength levels off. This finding is consistent with expectations derived from the contact hypothesis. Under such conditions, majority group members appear to be less inclined to demand greater crime control measures such as increased police protection. Period interactions with residential segregation also suggest that this relationship has grown stronger in each decade since 1980. Overall, our study provides strong support for threat theories and the contact hypothesis but offers necessary refinements