Traversing the Urban/Rural Divide: How Community Context Impacts Racialized Police Violence

• In Event: Race and Police Violence

Abstract

Black civilians are killed by police at 3x the rate of their white counterparts, and these disparate rates have not been decreasing over time. Researchers have consistently sought to understand what is driving this disparity, but the current literature on racialized police violence fails to adequately consider suburban and rural contexts generally, and how levels of violence, racial composition, and other social conditions may have differential impacts on fatal police violence across urban, rural, and suburban communities. Further, little is currently known about how Black Lives Matter has affected subsequent racialized police violence, and how these outcomes vary across urban, rural, and suburban contexts. This study addresses these oversights by analyzing racial disparities in lethal police violence through the frameworks of community violence and racial threat perspectives. Additionally, this study utilizes interrupted time series models to test the effects of protest activity on subsequent racialized police violence, and whether this is moderated by urban, rural, or suburban context. Findings reveal that it is important to broaden the scope of research to consider the processes at work in non-urban communities. Policy implications will be discussed.

Author

• Toryn Sperry, University of Maryland, College Park