Citation

Worrall JL, Bishopp SA, Terrill W. Justice Q. 2021; 38(7): 1428-1447.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/07418825.2020.1760331

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Researchers are working to identify appropriate benchmarks for exploring racial bias in the officer-involved shooting (OIS) context. Two recent studies benchmarked OIS against incidents in which officers drew weapons but did not shoot. A problem is that the decision to draw a weapon may itself be subject to bias. Using 2017 use-of-force data from the Dallas Police Department, we modeled officers' decisions to draw their weapons as a function of suspect race and other suspect, officer, and incident characteristics. We benchmarked by limiting analyses to arrest and active aggression cases, thereby excluding interactions in which it was less likely suspects would have had weapons drawn against them. The key finding was that black suspects were no more or less likely to have weapons drawn against them than other suspects.

Language: en

Keywords

deadly force; Officer-involved shootings; suspect race; use of force