An Analysis of Educational Attainment as a Predictor of Fatal Police Shootings

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Use of force by law enforcement represents an exigent social and public health issue in the United States. While much of the extant literature underscores race and its intersection with use of force by the police, few scholarly works have addressed the intersection of education status and police use of force, with prior scholarship largely centering on education and crime, more broadly. As such, this project seeks to address the following question: How does the education status of an area predict that community’s fatal shootings count by police? Data are collected by the National Officer-Involved Homicides Database, surveying fatal shooting counts from fifty of the largest police departments from 2010 to 2016 (n=263). Negative binomial models reveal some significant but inconsistent findings for lower educated groups experiencing higher counts of police-involved shootings, while a curvilinear relationship exists between the proportion of college educated people in an area and police shooting counts. Such results indicate that the attainment of a college degree shields individuals from interactions with police, and by extension, the potential for fatal shootings. Future policy should center on generating increased opportunities for higher education in such locales, which may mitigate the risk of experiencing fatal police violence.

Author

• Frank Donohue, University of Maryland, College Park