The Effect of Neighborhood Contextual Factors on the Racial Aspects of Police Use of Force: Focus on Implicit- and Counter-Bias Perspective

• In Event: Neighborhoods and Policing

Abstract

This study replicates and extends the study of Fridell and Lim in 2016, entitled as “Assessing the racial aspects of police force using the implicit- and counter-bias perspectives” (see the attachment). Fridell and Lim examined police implicit- and counter-bias against Blacks by analyzing police use of less-lethal force data. Their main focus was assessing whether the neighborhood factor, violent crime rates in nine district areas, moderates police uses of higher levels of force against Black subjects. In this study, “neighborhood” was defined by agency districts that reflect large and diverse geographic units, so Fridell and Lim suggested the use of smaller units to capture more homogeneous characteristics of each “neighborhood.” Therefore, this proposed study will replicate and extend Fridell and Lim’s study by (1) measuring neighborhood characteristics in smaller geographic units (e.g., Census Tracks), (2) using the data from a single police department in Texas from 2009 to 2014, and (3) comparing police implicit- and counter-bias against Blacks and Hispanic/Latino subjects.

Author

• Hyeyoung Lim, University of Alabama at Birmingham