Suchergebnisse

Decades of research on race and policing have offered much insight into the demographic and ecological patterns of these phenomena. African Americans experience significantly more contact with police than do whites. However, few researchers have examined in detail how gender intersects with race and place in determining whether and why Black women are suspicious of the police. Using in-depth interviews, this study compares Black women's and men's accounts to examine whether and why Black participants are suspicious of the police and how these suspicions may vary by gender. Policy implications are discussed, along with concrete recommendations for reducing anti-Black racism in police policy and practice.

The repeat use of fatal force against unarmed people of color has driven global protests against police violence and fueled criticism of policing as a mechanism for public safety. In the US, calls to abolish, transform, or reform policing have reemerged with a primary focus on the elimination of structural racism. In this essay, we contend that a two-tier policing problem exists. The first is the continued use of policing to enforce racial dominance through policing practices labeled as "proactive". The second is contemporary "warrior-style" police training that normalizes the expectation of unquestioned compliance with police directives and authorizes police to use physical force in its absence. This dangerous combination results in over-policing the public generally and Black members of the public specifically. Select incidents are provided to support these claims. We conclude by expressing support for the call to reallocate portions of policing budgets toward other government and community-based structures that function to enhance the ability of people to survive and thrive rather than operate as mechanisms of pre-adjudication punishment and state-sanctioned coercion.

Research on police-citizen interactions has largely explored the treatment of citizens by the police with less attention paid to citizens' behavior toward the police. Studies that have examined the behavior citizens' exhibit during police encounters have found that citizen behavior affects how they are treated by the police; yet, little scholarly attention has been given to the strategic responses' citizens use during their encounters with officers. The few studies that have examined how citizens manage encounters with police focus primarily on young Black males, making it difficult to identify similarities and differences across gender. The following study makes use of in-depth interview data collected from a sample of 25 Black adults residing in Baltimore City who shared their personal experiences and observations of local police prior to Freddie Gray's death. We draw on race, gender, and place literature to understand how participants interpret their encounters with police and the options available to individuals when dealing with the police. Our analyses reveal that some strategic responses differed by respondent gender as did the nature of the police-citizen outcomes. Findings have implications as to how men and women make sense of police actions and how citizens manage their interactions with the police.