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An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force

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  • Roland G. Fryer, Jr

Abstract

This paper explores racial differences in police use of force. On non-lethal uses of force, blacks and Hispanics are more than fifty percent more likely to experience some form of force in interactions with police. Adding controls that account for important context and civilian behavior reduces, but cannot fully explain, these disparities. On the most extreme use of force – officer-involved shootings – we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account. We argue that the patterns in the data are consistent with a model in which police officers are utility maximizers, a fraction of which have a preference for discrimination, who incur relatively high expected costs of officer-involved shootings.

Suggested Citation

  • Roland G. Fryer, Jr, 2016. "An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force," NBER Working Papers 22399, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22399
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    1. Shamena Anwar & Hanming Fang, 2006. "An Alternative Test of Racial Prejudice in Motor Vehicle Searches: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 127-151, March.
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    5. Ridgeway, Greg & MacDonald, John M., 2009. "Doubly Robust Internal Benchmarking and False Discovery Rates for Detecting Racial Bias in Police Stops," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 104(486), pages 661-668.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ingrid Gould Ellen & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "Race and the City," Working Papers 2018-022, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    2. David Arnold & Will Dobbie & Crystal S Yang, 2018. "Racial Bias in Bail Decisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 133(4), pages 1885-1932.
    3. Matt E. Ryan, 2020. "The heat: temperature, police behavior and the enforcement of law," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 187-203, April.
    4. LaVoice, Jessica & Vamossy, Domonkos F., 2024. "Racial disparities in debt collection," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Esteban M. Aucejo & Jonathan James, 2019. "Catching up to girls: Understanding the gender imbalance in educational attainment within race," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 502-525, June.
    6. Boehme, Hunter M. & Schnell, Cory, 2022. "Why did the use of force go up? Investigating the unexpected impact of a body-worn camera program on a use of force time series," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    7. Amanda Geller, 2017. "Policing America's Children: Police Contact and Consequences Among Teens in Fragile Families," Working Papers wp18-02-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    8. Cody T. Ross & Bruce Winterhalder & Richard McElreath, 2018. "Resolution of apparent paradoxes in the race-specific frequency of use-of-force by police," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Ramos Maqueda,Manuel & Chen,Daniel Li, 2021. "The Role of Justice in Development : The Data Revolution," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9720, The World Bank.
    10. Lundberg, Alexander, 2019. "Leniency Can Increase Deterrence," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    11. Nolan Kopkin, 2019. "Where and When Police Use Deadly Force: a County-Level Longitudinal Analysis of Fatalities Involving Interaction with Law Enforcement," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 150-162, September.
    12. Jones, Daniel B. & Troesken, Werner & Walsh, Randall, 2017. "Political participation in a violent society: The impact of lynching on voter turnout in the post-Reconstruction South," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 29-46.
    13. Harris, Timothy F. & Yelowitz, Aaron, 2018. "Racial climate and homeownership," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 41-72.
    14. Olugbenga Ajilore & Shane Shirey, 2017. "Do #AllLivesMatter? An Evaluation of Race and Excessive Use of Force by Police," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 45(2), pages 201-212, June.
    15. Alexander, Adam C. & Chen, Weiyu & Ward, Kenneth D., 2018. "Is intelligence associated with mortality from lethal force by law enforcement?," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 30-35.
    16. Insler, Michael A. & McMurrey, Bryce & McQuoid, Alexander F., 2019. "From broken windows to broken bonds: Militarized police and social fragmentation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 43-62.
    17. Ajilore, Olugbenga, 2017. "Is There a 1033 Effect? Police Militarization and Aggressive Policing," MPRA Paper 82543, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Olugbenga Ajilore, 2017. "Mental health, race, and deadly use of force," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(1), pages 423-428.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General

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