Variation in racial disparities in police use of force

Carl Lieberman

Journal of Urban Economics, 2024, vol. 141, issue C

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Policing; Police use of force; Race; Racial disparities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Working Paper: Variation in Racial Disparities in Police Use of Force (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:juecon:v:141:y:2024:i:c:s0094119023000724

DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2023.103602

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