No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
A skeptical reflection: Contextualizing police shooting decisions with skin-tone
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2022
Abstract
This commentary expands the discussion of Cesario's Missing Forces Flaw by identifying and discussing variables that influence police shooting decisions but are often absent from bias-based research. Additionally, the closing identifies novel recommendations for future contextually related research.
- Type
- Open Peer Commentary
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
Aveni, T. (2008). A critical analysis of police shootings under ambiguous circumstances. The MMRMA Deadly Force Project. Retrieved from: http://www.theppsc.org/Research/V3.MMRMA_Deadly_Force_Project.pdf.Google Scholar
Correll, J., Hudson, S. M., Guillermo, S., & Ma, D. S. (2014). The police officer's dilemma: A decade of research on racial bias in the decision to shoot. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8(5), 201–213. doi:10.1111/spc3.12099CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engel, R. S., McManus, H. D., & Isaza, G. T. (2020). Moving beyond “Best practice”: Experiences in police reform and a call for evidence to reduce officer-involved shootings. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 687(1), 146–165. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219889328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fachner, G., & Carter, S. (2015). An assessment of deadly force in the Philadelphia police department. Collaborative reform initiative. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.Google Scholar
FitzGerald, C., Martin, A., Berner, D., & Hurst, S. (2019). Interventions designed to reduce implicit prejudices and implicit stereotypes in real-world contexts: A systematic review. BMC Psychology, 7(1), 1–12. https://doi:10.1186/s40359-019-0299-7CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forscher, P. S., Lai, C. K., Axt, J. R., Ebersole, C. R., Herman, M., Devine, P. G., & Nosek, B. A. (2019). A meta-analysis of procedures to change implicit measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(3), 522–559. doi:10.1037/pspa0000160CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fridell, L. A. (2016). Explaining the disparity in results across studies assessing racial disparity in police use of force: A research note. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 42(3), 502–513. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-016-9378-y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989).Google Scholar
Hine, K. A., Porter, L. E., Westera, N. J., Alpert, G. P., & Allen, A. (2019). What were they thinking? Factors influencing police recruits’ decisions about force. Policing and Society, 29(6), 673–691. https://doi:10.21428/1163c5ca.8dfe6a91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollis, M. E., & Jennings, W. G. (2018). Racial disparities in police use-of-force: A state-of-the-art review. Policing: An International Journal, 41(2), 178–193. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm-09-2017-0112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, L., James, S. M., & Vila, B. J. (2016). The reverse racism effect. Criminology & Public Policy, 15(2), 457–479. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, L., James, S., & Vila, B. (2018). Testing the impact of citizen characteristics and demeanor on police officer behavior in potentially violent encounters. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 41(1), 24–40. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-11-2016-0159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klinger, D. A. (2012). Back to basics: Some thoughts on the importance of organized skepticism in criminology and public policy. Criminology and Public Policy. 11(4), 637–640. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9133.2012.00843.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klinger, D. A., & Slocum, L. A. (2017). Critical assessment of an analysis of a journalistic compendium of citizens killed by police gunfire. Criminology & Public Policy, 16(1), 349–362. doi:10.1111/1745-9133.12283CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFarlane, P., & Amin, A. (2021). Investigating fatal police shootings using the human factors analysis and classification framework (HFACS). Police Practice and Research, 22(7), 1777–1791. doi: 10.1080/15614263.2021.1878893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nieuwenhuys, A., Savelsbergh, G. J., & Oudejans, R. R. (2012). Shoot or don't shoot? Why police officers are more inclined to shoot when they are anxious. Emotion, 12(4), 827–833. doi:10.1037/a0025699CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nieuwenhuys, A., Savelsbergh, G. J., & Oudejans, R. R. (2015). Persistence of threat-induced errors in police officers' shooting decisions. Applied Ergonomics, 48, 263–272. doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2014.12.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nix, J., Campbell, B. A., Byers, E. H., & Alpert, G. P. (2017). A bird's eye view of civilians killed by police in 2015. Criminology & Public Policy, 16(1), 309–340. doi:10.1111/1745-9133.12269CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paluck, E. L., & Green, D. P. (2009). Prejudice reduction: What works? A review and assessment of research and practice. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 339–367. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163607.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rotello, C. M., Kelly, L. J., & Heit, E. (2018). The shape of ROC curves in shooter tasks: Implications for best practices in analysis. Collabra: Psychology, 4(1), 32. https://doi:10.1525/collabra.171Google Scholar
Shane, J., & Swenson, Z. (2020). Unarmed and dangerous: Patterns of threats by citizens during deadly force encounters with police (1st ed.). Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, M., Engel, R.S., & Cherkauskas, J.C. (2019). A multi-method investigation of officer decision-making and force used or avoided in arrest situations: Tulsa, Oklahoma police department administrative data analysis report. Retrieved from https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/Research%20Center/FINAL%20Tulsa%20Data%20Analysis%20Report-Use%20of%20Force%20Decision-making%20(1).pdf.Google Scholar
Suss, J., & Ward, P. (2018). Revealing perceptual-cognitive expertise in law enforcement: An iterative approach using verbal-report, temporal-occlusion, and option-generation methods. Cognition, Technology & Work, 20(4), 585–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-018-0493-z.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, A. P., Phillips, S. W., Worrall, J. L., & Bishopp, S. A. (2018). What factors influence an officer's decision to shoot? The promise and limitations of using public data. Justice Research and Policy, 18(1), 48–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525107118759900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Worrall, J. L., Bishopp, S. A., & Terrill, W. (2020). The effect of suspect race on police officers' decisions to draw their weapons. Justice Quarterly. https://doi:10.1080/07418825.2020.1760331.Google Scholar
Target article
What can experimental studies of bias tell us about real-world group disparities?
Related commentaries (29)
A skeptical reflection: Contextualizing police shooting decisions with skin-tone
Accuracy in social judgment does not exclude the potential for bias
Beyond stereotypes: Prejudice as an important missing force explaining group disparities
Centering the relationship between structural racism and individual bias
Cesario's framework for understanding group disparities is radically incomplete
Controlled lab experiments are one of many useful scientific methods to investigate bias
Culturally fluent real-world disparities can blind us to bias: Experiments using a cultural lens can help
Developmental research assessing bias would benefit from naturalistic observation data
Experimental studies of bias: Imperfect but neither useless nor unique
Experiments make a good breakfast, but a poor supper
External validity of social psychological experiments is a concern, but these models are useful
Fighting over who dictates the nature of prejudice
How should we understand “bias” as a thick concept in recruitment discrimination studies?
Missing context from experimental studies amplifies, rather than negates, racial bias in the real world
Missing perspective: Marginalized groups in the social psychological study of social disparities
Practical consequences of flawed social psychological research on bias
Social bias insights concern judgments rather than real-world decisions
Surely not all experimental studies of bias need abandoning?
Taking social psychology out of context
The call for ecological validity is right but missing perceptual idiosyncrasies is wrong
The importance of ecological validity, ultimate causation, and natural categories
The internal validity obsession
The logic of challenging research into bias and social disparity
The missing consequences: A fourth flaw of experiments
The only thing that can stop bad causal inference is good causal inference
The unbearable limitations of solo science: Team science as a path for more rigorous and relevant research
Two thousand years after Archimedes, psychologist finds three topics that will simply not yield to the experimental method
Understanding causal mechanisms in the study of group bias
What can the implicit social cognition literature teach us about implicit social cognition?
Author response
Reply to the commentaries: A radical revision of experimental social psychology is still needed