RESEARCH ARTICLE
A Bird's Eye View of Civilians Killed by Police in 2015
Further Evidence of Implicit Bias
The authors would like to thank The Washington Post for providing them with the data and especially Amy Brittain, David Fallis, Jeff Leen, and Ted Mellnik for their assistance while preparing this article. The authors would also like to thank four anonymous reviewers and Hyeyoung Lim for their helpful feedback.
Abstract
Research Summary
We analyzed 990 police fatal shootings using data compiled by The Washington Post in 2015. After first providing a basic descriptive analysis of these shootings, we then examined the data for evidence of implicit bias by using multivariate regression models that predict two indicators of threat perception failure: (1) whether the civilian was not attacking the officer(s) or other civilians just before being fatally shot and (2) whether the civilian was unarmed when fatally shot. The results indicated civilians from “other” minority groups were significantly more likely than Whites to have not been attacking the officer(s) or other civilians and that Black civilians were more than twice as likely as White civilians to have been unarmed.
Policy Implications
We implore the U.S. government to move forward with its publication of a national police use‐of‐force database, including as much information about the officers involved as possible. We further suggest police departments use training programs and community activities to minimize implicit bias among their officers.
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