A groundbreaking study of when, where, and whom police shoot in America's largest cities
Police shootings in America spark outrage and protest and raise questions about police use of lethal force. Yet despite the attention given to high-profile shootings, it is extremely difficult to draw wider conclusions about the frequency and outcomes of police gunfire because there is no systematic and centralized source of information on these incidents. This pioneering book draws on original data, compiled by the authors, to examine police shootings, both fatal and non-fatal, in hundreds of American cities. It documents racial disparities in shooting incidents and shows that the media spotlight on the most shocking fatal shootings tell only part of the story of police gunfire in our cities.
The authors find that there are patterns in when, where, and whom the police shoot, and they present strong evidence of unjustifiable disparities. It's not just that young, unarmed Black men are disproportionately subjected to gunfire during encounters with police officers; there is also a disproportionate concentration of shootings in the places where most Black and Hispanic urbanites live, even accounting for violent crime rates and other factors. As a consequence, Black and Hispanic residents of large cities are disproportionately exposed to police gunfire, even when they are not themselves the targets of it. The authors offer other insights as well, exploring the connection between police department funding and rates of shootings, and considering the influence of a city's political leadership on police use of gunfire. It is only through a deeper understanding of police shootings, the authors argue, that we can reduce their incidence and make effective reform possible.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"A highly accessible analysis. . . . [T]heir findings illustrate both a complex picture of police shootings and demonstrable patterns to these events, hopefully laying the groundwork for effective conversations about reforms." * Library Journal *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Für Beruf und Forschung
Produkt-Hinweis
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 237 mm
Breite: 161 mm
Dicke: 32 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-691-26078-5 (9780691260785)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Tom S. Clark is professor of political science at Stanford University. He is the author of The Limits of Judicial Independence and The Supreme Court: An Analytic History of Constitutional Decision-Making. Adam N. Glynn is professor of political science and quantitative theory and methods at Emory University. He is a coauthor of Varieties of Democracy: Measuring Two Centuries of Political Change. Michael Leo Owens is professor of political science at Emory University. He is the author of God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America.
