The masking of racial and ethnic disparity in police use of physical force: The effects of gender and custody status

✍ Scribed by Amie M. Schuck

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 103 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0047-2352
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2004.08.010

✦ Synopsis

The purpose of the present study was to examine racial and ethnic disparity in police use of physical force. Data from the Phoenix, Arizona Use-of-Force Project was used to assess disparity between White, Black, and Hispanic citizens. Racial and ethnic disparity in police use of physical force was found only for male citizens not in custody. The findings suggest that assessments of racial and ethnic disparity need to be situationally orientated in the theoretical meaning that race and ethnicity play in modern American society. Simple overall tests of disparity may not be adequate to understand and address the complex effects of race and ethnicity in the criminal justice system; thus, these disparities may lead to situations that further exacerbate already strained minoritymajority relations in America.