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To address this gap, I use Phoenix Police Department data collected as part of a three-year randomized-controlled trial of BWCs to examine variation in police discretion. These data include over 1.5 million police-citizen contacts nested within 826 officers and 388 neighborhoods. I examine two research questions. First, how do proactivity, arrests, and use of force vary depending on situational, officer, and neighborhood contexts? This provides a baseline for my next research question. Second, examining the same contexts and outcomes, do BWCs moderate the influence of neighborhood factors on police behavior? As such, I examine the untested, though heavily promoted, argument that BWCs will reduce the influence of extralegal factors on officer behavior.
Using cross-classified logistic regression models, I found that situational, officer, and neighborhood factors all influenced proactivity, arrest, and use of force. BWCs were associated with a lower likelihood of proactivity, but an increased likelihood of arrest and use of force. Officers were more proactive and were more likely to conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods. The moderating effects suggest that officers were even more likely to proactively initiate contacts and conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods when BWCs were activated. However, after BWCs were deployed, use of force was significantly less likely to occur in black neighborhoods. Given that high-profile police use of force incidents involving black suspects are often cited as a major impetus for the adoption of BWCs in American police agencies, this finding is a key contribution to the literature.
Despite high BWC activation compliance among the officers within this study, no evidence was found for BWCs having a civilizing effect as the pre-condition of citizen awareness was rarely satisfied. These results could shape policies within departments implementing BWCs hoping to improve officer safety and community relations. Mandatory notification would satisfy the pre-condition of citizen awareness, allowing for the BWC to potentially have a civilizing effect.
I examine trends in hate crime incidents in the U.S. during the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In addition, I examine overall hate crime incidents, as well as single-bias motivations for hate crimes such as race/ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. Lastly, I test whether there were differences in hate crime trends across the two presidents. My results find that hate crime trends were overall lower during Obama’s presidency and higher in Trump’s. To add on, I conclude that various legislations and the rhetoric used by the former presidents can affect the rate of hate crimes.
Background: Studies show that ex-prisoners often experience more health problems than the general population; unfortunately, these issues follow them upon their release from prison. As such, it is possible re-entry rates signal the need for neighborhood-based health care organizations (HCOs). We ask: are incarceration and re-entry rates associated with the availability of HCOs?
Methods: Using 2008 Central Business Pattern data, 2008 prison admissions and release data, and 2000 and 2010 census data, we test whether prison admission and release rates impact the availability of HCOs net of neighborhood characteristics in Arkansas using Logit-Poisson hurdle models with county fixed effects.
Results: We find that the incarceration and re-entry rates – together known as coercive mobility -- are related to whether a neighborhood has one or more HCOs, but not to the number of HCOs in a neighborhood.
Conclusion: Future public policies should aim to locate health care organizations in areas where there is significant churning of individuals in and out of prison.