Variation in racial disparities in police use of force

I examine how racial disparities in police use of force vary using new data covering every municipal police department in New Jersey. Along the intensive margin of force severity, I find disparities that disfavor Black subjects and are larger at higher force levels, even after adjusting for incident...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of urban economics Vol. 141; p. 103602
Main Author Lieberman, Carl
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.05.2024
Subjects
Police use of force
Policing
Race
Racial disparities
K42
Policing
Police use of force
Racial disparities
Race
J15
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0094-1190
1095-9068
DOI10.1016/j.jue.2023.103602

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Summary:I examine how racial disparities in police use of force vary using new data covering every municipal police department in New Jersey. Along the intensive margin of force severity, I find disparities that disfavor Black subjects and are larger at higher force levels, even after adjusting for incident-level factors and using new techniques to address selection bias. I then extend empirical Bayes methods to estimate department-specific racial disparities and observe significant differences across and within these hundreds of departments. My findings suggest that ignoring heterogeneity in police use of force misrepresents the problem and masks the existence of both departments with very large disparities and those without apparent disparities against Black civilians, but the variation even within departments may make identifying and treating inequitable policing difficult.
ISSN:0094-1190
1095-9068
DOI:10.1016/j.jue.2023.103602