Abstract
Racial disparities in policing are well documented and have a long-standing history in the United States. Across various policing metrics, Black and Hispanic Americans are disproportionately represented in police use of force and fatal force incidents. This chapter reviews the psychological science associated with race and policing. It begins by highlighting racial disparities that exist within policing, including stops, searches, arrests, and use of force, and the lack of quality national-level data that hinders knowledge on this topic. It then turns to how psychological science can explain the causes of such disparities. Focusing on individual-level processes, it reviews psychological literature on implicit and explicit attitudes, dual-processing systems, stereotypes, dehumanization, social identity theory and threats (stereotype threat, masculinity threat), and social dominance orientation in relation to police behavior. It next discusses contextual-level factors that interact with individual psychology to produce inequitable outcomes, including policing policies, practices, and culture. Finally, it suggests targeted ways to reduce racial bias in policing, including individual-level actions such as officer training, as well as departmental and structural policy initiatives. Reform will require multi-faceted solutions across multiple levels to be effective.
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Kahn, K.B., Money, E.E.L. (2022). The Psychology of Race and Policing. In: Jeglic, E., Calkins, C. (eds) Handbook of Issues in Criminal Justice Reform in the United States. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77565-0_3
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