Racial Threat and Police Size: the Moderating Effect of Exposure to Threatening Groups

• In Event: Theories of Conflict, Oppression, and Inequality

Abstract

a) Objective: The racial threat perspective expects cities with large minority populations will have more crime control. The benign neglect hypothesis expects that perceived threat is attenuated when the group perceived as threatening is residentially separated from the dominant group. The purpose of this paper is to examine an alternative measure of segregation that focuses on levels of exposure between a dominant group (e.g. affluent whites) and potentially threatening groups (e.g. young black males) while also accounting for exposure from surrounding neighborhoods. b) Data/Methods: We use recent data on offending and police size from the UCR program, and predictors from the American Community Survey for cities with at least 50,000 population. We measure inter-group exposure using a variation of the Isolation Index (P*), which we adapt to account for the composition of surrounding neighborhoods. c) Results: Results are supportive of the racial threat perspective, finding that cities with large black percentages have larger police forces, and the effect is stronger in areas with more exposure between specific threatened and threatening groups. d) Conclusions/Implications: These results refine the racial threat and benign neglect hypotheses by specifying who is threatened by whom and accounting for the context of surrounding neighborhoods.

Authors

• Alex Billmeier, Florida State University

• Brian Stults, Florida State University

• Jacob I. Stowell, Northeastern University