P096 - The Impact of Minority Representation on Police Killings of African Americans and Hispanics

• In Event: Poster Session & Ice Cream Social

Abstract

Police killings are a critically important public health concern, particularly for African American and Hispanic communities. Over the past decade, incidences of police use of deadly force have increased (Mora, Terrill, and Foster, 2022), even as overall crime rates have gone down. In 2022, there were only ten days that law enforcement did not kill someone in the US (Mapping Police Violence, 2023). Utilizing a conflict perspective, this research examines how systematic inequalities, along with racial and place-based threats, influence police violence against minorities. Further, we investigate how diversity within the police department might help mitigate the use of violence. Using a unique dataset created primarily from the Mapping Police Violence database (2023), we utilize negative binomial regression analysis to predict police killings of African American and Hispanic citizens in the 100 most populated cities in the United States. Our findings show that both racial threats and place-based threats (homicide rates) increase the rate of police killings. The presence of households with firearms also significantly increases the rate of police killings as well as being in the Southern region of the United States. Importantly, we also show that officer diversity reduces the rate of police killings. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

Authors

• Beth Bjerregaard, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Alana Murray, Mercer University

• Benjamin Branaman, Arizona State University

• Devin R Carbonaro, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Tess Geiger, University of Cincinatti

• Yaniah Powell, Heidelberg University