Will More Black Cops Matter? Officer Race and Police-Involved Homicides of Black Citizens

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Nicholson-Crotty, Sean; Nicholson-Crotty, Jill; Fernandez, Sergio
• 署名单位: Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; University of Johannesburg
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.12734
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 206-216
• 关键词: representative bureaucracy; active representation; deadly force; distributional equity; community; GENDER; ENFORCEMENT; VIOLENCE; blue

摘要

In response to police-involved homicides of black citizens in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere, some have suggested that more black police officers could reduce the number of these events. The authors offer an empirical test of this assertion. The literature offers conflicting expectations: some studies suggest that increased representation reduces discrimination, while others suggest that it increases discrimination. The authors reconcile these perspectives using the concept of critical mass, which leads to the expectation that an increase in black officers will reduce the number of black citizens killed in encounters with police, but only once the proportion of black officers is sufficiently large. We test this expectation in analyses of recently compiled data on police-involved homicides in 2014 and 2015 in large U.S. cities.