Racial Differences in Police Use of Force: Evidence from the 1960s Civil Disturbances
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 108,
May 2018
(pp. 217-21)
Abstract
There is little empirical evidence as to whether protests against policy brutality impact the behavior of police forces. We seek to close this gap by considering the impact of the racial civil disturbances in the 1960s and 1970s on deaths by legal intervention using an event study approach. In the first three years after a protest in a county, police killings of white Americans increase by 0.4–1.0 annually in impacted counties and killings of non-whites increase by 0.7 annually. In subsequent years, the impact on killings of white Americans disappears while the impact on killings of non-whites persists.Citation
Cunningham, Jamein P., and Rob Gillezeau. 2018. "Racial Differences in Police Use of Force: Evidence from the 1960s Civil Disturbances." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 108: 217-21. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181110Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law