Racial bias and lethal force errors among Canadian police officers.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith P. Andersen ◽  
Paula M. Di Nota ◽  
Evelyn C. Boychuk ◽  
Ulrich Schimmack ◽  
Peter I. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Lethal Force

scholarly journals Experimental sleep loss, racial bias, and the decision criterion to shoot in the Police Officer’s Dilemma task

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Scullin ◽  
Michelle R. Hebl ◽  
Abby Corrington ◽  
Stacy Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
Decision Criterion ◽  
Sleep Loss ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Hygiene Education ◽  
Psychomotor Vigilance

AbstractViolent behavior, police brutality, and racial discrimination are currently at the forefront of society’s attention, and they should be. We investigated whether mild sleep loss—as typical for many adults throughout the work week—could aggravate the socio-emotional-cognitive processes contributing to violence and discrimination. In a sample of 40 healthy young adults, we either experimentally restricted participants’ sleep for four nights (6.2 h/night) or let participants obtain normal sleep (7.7 h/night)—and then had them complete the Police Officer’s Dilemma Task. In this computerized task, the participant must rapidly decide to shoot or not shoot at White and Black men who either are or are not holding a gun. Results showed significant racial biases, including more and quicker shooting of Black targets compared to White targets. Furthermore, signal detection analyses demonstrated that mild sleep restriction changed participants’ decision criterion, increasing the tendency to shoot, even when controlling for psychomotor vigilance, fluid intelligence, and self-reported desirability to behave in a socially acceptable manner. The increased tendency to shoot was also observed in participants who reported believing that they had adapted to the sleep loss. Future experimental research using trained police officers will help establish the generalizability of these laboratory effects. Importantly, sleep loss is modifiable via organization-level changes (e.g., shift scheduling, light entrainment) and individual-level interventions (e.g., sleep hygiene education, incentives for behavioral change), suggesting that if sleep loss is corrected, it could save lives—including Black lives.

Across the thin blue line: Police officers and racial bias in the decision to shoot.

2007 ◽  
Vol 92 (6) ◽  
pp. 1006-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Correll ◽  
Bernadette Park ◽  
Charles M. Judd ◽  
Bernd Wittenbrink ◽  
Melody S. Sadler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Blue Line

scholarly journals White civilians’ implicit danger evaluation of police officers underlies explicit perception of police

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo J. Olivett ◽  
David S. March
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Police Reform ◽  
Implicit Processes ◽  
Explicit Attitudes ◽  
Perception Of Threat ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Perception Of Police ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractThe role of implicit processes during police-civilian encounters is well studied from the perspective of the police. Decades of research on the “shooter bias” suggests that implicit Black-danger associations potentiate the perception of threat of Black individuals, leading to a racial bias in the decision to use lethal force. Left understudied are civilians’ possible associations of police with danger and how such associations pervade behavior and explicit views of the police. The current work begins to address this gap. In two within-subjects studies, we separately assess police-threat (i.e., safety/danger) and police-valence (i.e., good/bad) associations as well as their relative influences on explicit perceptions of police. Study 1 revealed that implicit threat evaluations (police-danger associations) more strongly predicted negative explicit views of the police compared to implicit valence evaluations (police-negative associations). Study 2 replicated these findings and suggests that individuals evaluate the police as more dangerous versus negative when each response is pitted against each other within single misattribution procedure trials. The possible implications for explicit attitudes toward police reform and behavior during police-civilian encounters are discussed.

Suicide by Cop: A New Perspective on an Old Phenomenon

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-105
Author(s):  
Alejandra Jordan ◽  
Nancy R. Panza ◽  
Charles Dempsey
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
Lethal Force ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Subject Characteristics

Suicide by cop (SbC) occurs when an individual purposely engages in threatening behavior toward police officers in an attempt to be killed. Previous studies have found the prototypical SbC subject is male, mid-30s, with disrupted relationships, and mental health concerns, although these studies have almost exclusively relied on officer involved shootings or public information as sources of data. To address the dearth of knowledge for SbC cases involving no force or less lethal force, 419 SbC cases from the Los Angeles Police Department Mental Evaluation Unit were analyzed. Results revealed similar frequencies with regard to subject characteristics as in the previous literature; however, substantial differences were seen across incident and outcome characteristics, with a much lower rate of injury and death. Thirteen variables were associated with differing levels of force. The results of the present study paint a more positive picture of SbC outcomes for police and subjects alike.

scholarly journals The Criticality of a Community Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 561-564
Author(s):  
Rebecca S. Hardin
Keyword(s):  
Systems Thinking ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Police Station ◽  
Systems Thinking Approach ◽  
Systems View

To enhance interactions between police officers and citizens, industrial–organizational (I-O) psychologists will have to utilize a systems thinking approach to understand the multifaceted challenges facing Baltimore and other cities across the nation and develop holistic solutions that include the whole community. Ruggs et al. (2016) overlooked the systems view of Baltimore's challenges by focusing solely on isolated incidents of racial bias and proposing solutions predominantly inside the police station. To develop a comprehensive solution that has the potential to truly extinguish Baltimore's flames, we must also account for the interplay of police bias where it exists in the community; otherwise, we risk simply fanning the flames and escalating the challenges further with linear solutions.

scholarly journals Approaching “Baltimore Is Burning” From a Systems Change Perspective: Role of I-O Psychologists as Change Agents

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 565-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepshikha (Dia) Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Systems Change ◽  
Readiness For Change ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Whole Systems ◽  
Different Levels

Policing in United States has been under media and public scrutiny for a while now. The focal article “Baltimore Is Burning: Can I-O Psychologists Help Extinguish the Flames?” (Ruggs et al., 2016) is a critical piece of work that not only sheds light on how racial bias may impact police–citizen interactions but also outlines possible ways in which industrial–organizational (I-O) psychologists can intervene to remedy the situation. Although the call to use evidence-based I-O interventions as levers to facilitate a more effective and unbiased police force is timely, it is critical to acknowledge that the charged environment and the controversial nature of this issue imply that some members of the police force might not accept the suggested interventions at face value. Many police officers are upstanding and hard-working individuals and may see the change interventions as an attack. Thus, before attempting to execute any strategies offered in the focal article, I-O psychologists will have to do significant groundwork from a change management perspective: The current crisis needs to be approached from a whole systems change perspective so that we can (a) understand the factors causing the “flames” and define the problem space comprehensively; (b) understand the type of change we need to effect in response to the crisis, stay closely attuned to the system's readiness for change, and also anticipate resistance to change from different levels of the system; and (c) chart a clear outline of what our role should entail as change agents in helping resolve this crisis. Thus, this commentary complements the focal article by juxtaposing authors’ recommendations against a whole systems change paradigm, questions their implicit assumptions, and recommends that I-O psychologists act as change agents to help police forces define the problem, find solutions, anticipate resistance, and execute interventions at different levels of the policing system.

scholarly journals Racial disparity in police killings : an analysis of 2014 United States lethal force data

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Michael Laughlin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Disparity ◽  
Lethal Force ◽  
Police Data ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Force Data ◽  
The U.S

The main purpose of this research is to create a reliable database concerning law enforcement use of lethal force and employ this database to evaluate whether evidence exists that the decision to use lethal force is impacted by micro-level (officer) race-based considerations. A new database of all lethal force incidents in the U.S. in 2014 was created using 2014: Killed by Police Data and several other websites: 2014: Intentional Lethal Force Data (Menifield and Laughlin, 2018). African American victims were overrepresented and Caucasian victims were underrepresented in police officers' use of lethal force. However, this database and analysis provide no evidence of micro-level discriminatory decision making in the deployment of lethal force by law enforcement. Further, findings do not support the argument that the decision to use lethal force by law enforcement in the U.S. is influenced by race. This research calls into question a number of prevoiusly held assumptions when exploring racially disparate outcomes in lethal force; i.e. these data show greater support for factors external to law enforcement (as opposed to internal) as contributors to disparate outcomes, and questions whether population proportion should be the comparison point for law enforcement use of lethal force.

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