Poster #228 - The Role of Proximity to Police Violence in Shaping Neighborhood Perceptions of Social Organization

• In Event: ASC Poster Session I

Abstract

We analyze the effects of police killings on how community members perceive informal social control in Columbus, Ohio based on spatial proximity to the location of police violence. Application of the distance decay model to community informal social control post-police violence draws on the expectation that spatial proximity to a police killing event amplifies effects on local neighborhood informal social control perceptions. Using the 2014-16 Adolescent Health and Development in Context data and the Fatal Encounters Database, we find preliminary evidence that residential neighborhood informal social control perceptions decline, on average, in the 2–4-month aftermath of a police killing event among Black respondents. We will explore heterogeneity in this effect by location of the police killing event relative to home addresses. Findings have implications for law enforcement actions and its effects upon neighborhood social organization.

Authors

• Havana Mohr-Ramirez, The Ohio State University

• Christopher R. Browning, Ohio State University