Why Police-Citizen Interactions Are Turning Violent and the Roles of Race in De-Escalation Free Essay Example

As a general introduction, the Community Relations Service (CRS) is an exceptional body of the American society Department of Justice which deals with the prevention and resolution of communal tensions and conflicts. A big percentage of these disputes are reported to crop from police-citizen interactions. Most of these actions have been observed to be discriminatory in terms of national origin, colour, and race. Most of the police-citizen interactions are turning violent on a worrying scale. Use of excessive force, as well as many other policing issues resulting from police-citizen interactions, is the major alleged cause of this discomfort. Nevertheless, issues of race seem to play a number of significant roles in de-escalation of such conflicts (Austin, 2017). Therefore, this paper is an annotated bibliography of several peer-reviewed journals and articles targeting this subject. Much of the work is extracted from the abstracts of the reviewed materials unless otherwise stated.

Racial Bias and Disparities in Proactive Policing | Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/24928/chapter/9/

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This article reviews issues associated with proactive policing by revealing the manner in which the non-whites are arrested, questioned, injured or even stopped by the police from a racially biased point of view as well as much disparities in policing differences in terms of ethnic-biases. The overall struggle for the problematic interactions among the police and the public could be on a worsening end because the majority of the proactive policing strategies promote an increased level of police-public interactions. Racial disparities in the events of criminal justice, offending and the likelihood of one being sentenced as a victim of crime are reported to be questionable following discriminatory grounds upon which justice and fairness are executed. However, such policing issues could be interwoven with the American society discriminatory history against the non-whites. This paper notes the likelihood of big racial disparities in the size and the type of police and citizen encounters in the event when the police target high-risk places or people which a common practice in many proactive monitoring programs (Racial Bias, n.d). Although the evidence does not convey the extent and the racial disparities based on racial animus, statistical prediction or implicit bias, the history of racial injustice among the American society in policing and criminal justice could justify the essence of the probe against such strained relations in police-citizen relations.

Bacon, J. (n.d.). Racial threat: The effect of racial and economic demographics on police spending.

This Journal gives the attention of the racial threat hypothesis of the majority and minority discrepancies and its contribution to police-citizen struggles. The hypothesis argues that the racial majority tend to recognize the growing sizes of a minority population as threatening, and in reaction, actions may be taken to curb the threat. This is also further hypothesized to explain the disparate racial numbers in the U.S prisons whereby the minors have flooded the prisons. The racial threat hypothesis thus gains favour in this particular research in illumination as to the disproportional prison populace following increased police confrontations with the minority population (Bacon, n.d). The empirical assessments of the hypothesis demonstrate that empirical incongruities may be due to insufficient attention to the abstract complexity of racial threat due to state-sanctioned mechanisms of Police arrests, expenditures, capital punishments and sentencing.

Clark, N., Werling, R., Chintakrindi, S., & Randol, B. (2019). Differences in citizen perceptions of interactions with police officers. The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles , 0032258X1982685.

This journal highlights the relationships between demographics, criminal matters and police perception. Different demographics, as well as criminal matters of various natures in the policing sector, seem to differ in the manner in which they perceive police-citizen interactions. Several research questions for the study are put forward to investigate how the citizens of mid-sized California differ in such perceptions and if such discrepancies affect the perception of the police. The overall results of this study show that both crime rates and demographics are weakly correlated and do not carry any meaningful weight in determining the people’s sensitivities of dealings with the police (Clark, et.al, 2019). The article concludes that demographics do not offer any meaningful contribution on how citizens perceive the police.

Kahn, K. B., McMahon, J. M., & Stewart, G. (2017). Misinterpreting Danger? Stereotype Threat, Pre-attack Indicators, and Police-Citizen Interactions . Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology , 33 (1), 45-54.

This journal is an insight on stereotype threat and police-citizen behaviour. It puts into comparison the training offered to the police and the materials on pre-attack signals in the police-citizen conflicts with similar indicators on the behaviour of the stereotype threat which could not necessarily mean an indicator of any danger. The paper reveals that stereotype threat is a type of social identity intimidation where people could feel that they are treated and judged on a negative scale based on a certain social group stereotype. This is more of a psychological threat and could definitely lead to the increased target’s anxiety, low cognitive capacity and physiological arousal. The signs of this type of threat are hypothesized to be of same nature to those of a pre-attack as taught in the U.S police. This can consequentially make the police to misjudge a citizen’s actions. A deductive content analysis was done on stereotype indicators of threat, arousal, and anxiety and slow cognitive and it shows an overlap between the danger indicators taught in training and the indicators based on the stereotypes (Kahn, et.al, 2017). This is reasonable in police-citizen interactions because stereotype training should also be taught lest the police continue to misinterpret the public’s stereotype-threat related actions.

Fridell, L. A. (2015). Racially Biased Policing: Guidance for Analyzing Race Data from Vehicle Stops : Executive Summary .

This paper analyses the controversy of racial profiling in the U.S by the police. Although it reveals a little about the police bias on a racial basis, the public perception speaks otherwise. The article is an analysis of citizens’ views concerning reported personal encounters with police bias. This is inclusive of selective treatment of certain individuals and neighbourhoods, racial profiling and police prejudice. The findings of the article reveal that such attitudes as towards to prevalence and practices of such kind are on the large extent shaped by the citizen’s race or personal encounter with the police discriminatory acts as well as exposure to media reporting on such news involving police misbehaviour. Police racial bias could be said to involve matters such as motorists’ stops in terms of racial discrimination and minority discriminatory treatments (Fridell, 2015). The findings of this article support the group-position hypothesis about race relations. This has however promoted incidences of such increased bitter relations in police-citizen encounters.

Mummolo, J. (2018). Modern Police Tactics, Police-Citizen Interactions, and the Prospects for Reform. The Journal of Politics , 80 (1), 1-15.

This journal brings to the attention of the reader the high profiled police misconducts and the urgent need to acquire better law reinforcement to curb the rising incidences of violence. According to this work, there are doubts as to whether the police officers are controllable by their commanders because of their egocentric nature and personalities. The paper also highlights that the highly autonomous police could also be responsive to managerial directives. An analysis is conducted based on police-citizen interactions to evaluate the influence of the protocol changes for stopping criminal suspects on police performance. The findings conclude that such alterations in protocols can eventually alter police behaviour (Mummolo, 2018). This means that such incidences of increased police-citizen violence could also be triggered by such reforms.

Peplow S. (2019). Escalation: Brixton, 10– 12 April 1981. Race and riots in Thatcher’s Britain .

This article is a study of Lord Scarman’s public inquiry into the history of troubled police-community relation as and the impact that perspectives of this poor relationship itself had upon deployed officers in the Brixton area, who often depicted local people purely as criminals. The study reveals that formal community-police relations are broken down due to the tension concerning policing tactics and attitude. The article places police actions as provocative and the disastrous effects of policing operations at points of saturation or when they can no longer tolerate pressure (Peplow, 2019). Also, the paper notes the negative exaggeration of information by rumours and media reporting as well.

Smith, B. W. (2015). Ethno ‐ racial political transition and citizen satisfaction with police. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management , 28 (2), 242-254.

This is a journal work that analyses the African –American citizens and their views towards policing. Policing is viewed as of low dignity by the African-Americans but better perceived by white citizens. The article suggests that; due to ethnic-racial transitions in big towns, such an attitude towards the police could have had an impact on how the police view such individuals too but could be altered due to better interactions with the whites. The study examines this in the state of Washington, DC with a similar political and Demographic background. The findings, however, show that although the town has undergone a big ethnic-racial transition, the African-American people reported less satisfaction with the Police than the whites (Smith, 2015). Therefore this is a strained relationship in police-citizen confrontations merely arising from perceptions of the citizen.

A study of how race, clothes and demeanour influence police officer behaviour . (2018,March 26). Retrieved from: https://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/472729006-Study-How-race-clothes-and-demeanor-influence-police-officer-behavior

This is a recent study from the Washington State which focuses on the subject's demeanour as the reason for increased violent police-public encounters. The research was carried out through a controlled laboratory study to experiment whether behaviour and observable appearances affect the way in which police-citizen interactions are viewed. However, the study proves that the outward appearance of the subject is a recessive factor compared to the dominant manner in which the character behaves at times of police confrontations. The fair interaction of the police with the general public offers a potential ground of the whole drama turning violent based on the reason of character behaviour. Although the police could be impartial on the basis of race, appearance and attire, this does not underwrite the role of the subject in confrontation cases. This illuminates the subject that, always the blame is not on the policing side but the citizenry contribution to confrontations turning violent.

Taylor, E., & Lee, M. (2019). Points of View: Arrestees' Perspectives on Police Body-Worn Cameras and their Perceived Impact on Police-Citizen Interactions. The British Journal of Criminology .

This journal reviews the impacts of the relationship between the Body-worn cameras (BWCs) by the police and how the public perceives it. This study is conducted by interviewing Individuals who have recently experienced arrest by police officers. The article examines the arrestee views and such experiences. The collected data revealed the public has more confidence in dressed up police ( that is, those who put on the BWCs) because of it a notion of higher accountability as well as more improved citizen-police encounters. Although the use of BWCs is restricted to a certain code of policies, it seems to add confidence on the level of the citizen trust to the police.

Van Damme, A. (2017). How to measure procedurally (un)just behaviour during police-citizen interactions. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management , 40 (3), 587-600.

This paper is focused on validating an instrument to measure the procedural just and unjust police behaviour in the events of confrontations with citizens. After the research, the findings here reveal that both procedurally just and the procedurally unjust behaviour can take place in a similar platform of interactions. This research also finds that there is a stronger negative correlation of the procedurally unjust behaviour with the citizen’s behaviour in comparison with the strong positive correlations of the procedural just indices (Van Damme, 2017). Therefore, police-citizen violence could also be aggravated by the procedures involved during interactions.

Weitzer, R. (2017). Recent trends in the police-citizen relations and police reform in the United States. Police-Citizen Relations Across the World , 28-45.

This article introduces the distinction between the law and policing and analyzing the determinants of why the police are given the right to dictate behaviour by force and illegal means. According to the paper, certain groups of citizens believe that when police behave violently or outside the bounds of the law, they are within their rightful limits. The article also resolves to determine who makes such groups and the reasons for their bad attitudes as well as politics and cleavage on society levels. The paper highlights too that ethnic identity is an additional effective attitude in police behaviour (Weitzer, 2017). The paper gives insights into the varied nature of what can be perceived to worsen police-citizen behaviours by highlighting perception and racial issues.

Hines, S. (2017). Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality. Why Detroit Matters .

In this scholarly article, Sandra Hines who is the president of the Detroit Coalition against Police Brutality undertakes an interview that discusses the role of the coalition in mitigating brutality and violence in Detroit. The article captures the racial perspective in the form of what the paper describes as the white takeover (Hines, 2017). The coalition is put in place with the agenda of curbing increased violence among policing and society whereby racial discrimination is pointed as a contributor to the escalated cases.

Shjarback, J. A., & White, M. D. (2015). Departmental Professionalism and Its Impact on Indicators of Violence in Police-Citizen Encounters. Police Quarterly , 19 (1), 32-62.

This journal reviews the relationship between police professionalism and the violent outcomes between the police and the general public. Five measures of departmental professionalism have been reviewed such as agency commitment to education, screening standards, training hours, female representation and agency commitment to community policing. The correlation of the police-citizen violence traces its origin from departmental professionalism (Shjarback, et.al, 2015). The police use of excessive force can lead to eroded values of legitimacy because it lies against the professionalism behind policing.

Spencer, K. B., Charbonneau, A. K., & Glaser, J. (2016). Implicit Bias and Policing. Social and Personality Psychology Compass , 10 (1), 50-63.

This article suggests that the major cause of biased policing is the implicit biases that tend to operate outside the consciousness of awareness and control but also influences the behaviour of citizens and the police too. These implicit biases could be the stereotypic nature of associating the black people with the commitment of crimes or such characteristics of violence and hostility. Due to these, policies and training regarding policing have been adjusted while others are in the process of adjustments to negate racial profiling, reduction of discretion, adoption of new technologies, training officers etc. The study suggests that such adjustments are of value if they incorporate the understanding that biased policing occurs in the absence of racist thoughts due to conscious awareness and control (Spencer, et.al, 2016). This is in addition to race de-escalation issues.

Police misconduct and malpractice: a critical analysis of citizens’ complaints | Policing : An International Journal | Vol 21, No 1. (2013, April 13). Retrieved from; https://www.emeraldinsight.com

This journal probes several hypotheses which are being tested in the analytics of official claims against a large police department. The hypothesis claimed that those citizens who are less powerful and have few resources are more likely to file the claims of misconduct than the more affluent citizens. However, their complaints are less sustained by police investigators. This shows a bigger rift in police injustices which could be due to racial discrimination or police untrustworthiness.

Todak, N., & James, L. (2018). A Systematic Social Observation Study of Police De-Escalation Tactics. Police Quarterly , 21 (4), 509-543.

This article is an analysis of a number of police-citizen interactions observed during the Fall 2016 and coded through systematic social observation. The journal assesses how often the police use de-escalation tactics inclusive of respect tactic of treatment of all citizens in a respectful way. The human tactic of getting to the level of the public and minimizing power imbalances. An honest tactic of being true to the situation. The findings reveal that the police were being more excited by the citizen demeanour than demographics in their adoption to de-escalation tactics (Todak, et.al. 2018). De-escalation tactics have been adopted sparingly in the general police force and these further strains the police-citizen relationships.

Gamson, W. A., & McEvoy, J. (2017). Police Violence and Its Public Support. Collective Violence , 329-342.

This article captures the attention that the illegal use of violence by the police in the U.S is a consequence of their occupational experiences and the colleague sanctions of violent engagements with citizens. The paper is a case study of the municipal police force of the U.S and it finds out that the police find this usage of violence as morally acceptable and they justify not considering its legal impact. The article concludes that the police constitute this as a legitimation for violence in a manner that it is equal to legal legitimation (Gamson, 2017). This use of violence is conceived as a personal possession used at ones’ own discretion and is a major contributor to increased police-citizen violent confrontations.

Hodgson, J. F. (2014). Police violence in Canada and the USA: analysis and management. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management , 24 (4), 520-551.

This journal focuses on contemporary law enforcement institutions in Canadian and US cities and illustrates the service limitations and public conflicts that are increasingly being generated into violent encounters by the failure to move beyond the authoritarian organizational operational model. The capacity of public policing institutions to provide effective, non ‐ violent police services to meet the needs of the communities is determined by the nature of the police institutional or organizational model employed. The study analyses the appropriateness of current police training models, race relations training, non ‐ violent conflict resolution training and all other police training that may be grounded and generated from a paramilitary authoritarian hierarchical composition (Hodgson, 2014).

Milani, J., Bradford, B., & Jackson, J. (2018). Police Violence. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice .

This journal highlights the ability of the police to assert social control and reproduce social order. Nevertheless, according to this study, this depends, on the capacity to use force to achieve these ends, whether when restraining someone attempting to self-harm or shooting dead an armed terrorist. In accordance with the conclusions of the study, the use of violence to command order by the police is a situation only aggravated by the perception by citizens and unacceptability.

References

Austin, A. W. (2017). From Race Relations to Community Relations. University of Illinois Press . doi:10.5406/Illinois/9780252037047.003.0006