Law Enforcement Judgement and Race
As a tool to maintain social stability and standardize morality, law plays an important role in restraining crime. But the module that connects law and society is the enforcer. In the process of law enforcement, the attitudes and prejudices of individual police officers towards different ethnic groups affect the judgment and behavior of law enforcement. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that some minorities, especially young black men, are incarcerated at disproportionate rates. Compared to their proportion in the general population, blacks are severely overrepresented among prisoners, while whites are underrepresented among prisoners. And it turns out that some minorities are disproportionately represented among suspects shot by police. The U.S. Department of Justice (2001) reported that between 1976 and 1998, black suspects were killed by police at approximately five times the rate of white suspects. (Brown, J. M., & Langan, P. A.) Liska and Yu claim that “the higher the percentage of non‐White community members in a city, the higher the rates of police use of deadly force” (Liska, Alan E., Jiang Yu., 1) These facts clearly convey a message that blacks and other people of color are more vulnerable to unequal judgment in the legal system. The police, as enforcers in the legal system, are particularly prominent on this issue.
Almost all police officers said that racial discrimination and personal feelings would not be mixed in the process of law enforcement. But the reality is that blacks and whites have very different rates of arrest and incarceration—for example, in 2011, the combined federal and state incarceration rate for non-Hispanic black men was more than six times the rate for non-Hispanic white men. The judgement and decision of the police in the case also obviously contributed to this result. (Western B, 98-102) This article will examine the impact of race on judgement when police officers encounter blacks and other people of color in the process of law enforcement.
In an age where racial prejudice is taboo in most areas, police are denying judgments based on group stereotypes in law enforcement. But research shows that discrimination is pervasive in many areas, including policing. ((Spencer, Katherine B et al, 1) In Implicit Bias and Policing. In this article, the authors link this bias to the phenomenon of Implicit Bias. Greenwald define it as “The implicit biases that operate outside of conscious awareness and control but nevertheless influence our behaviors” (Greenwald, Poehlman et al, 17-41) The author believes that people’s cognitive resources are limited, and in the When the police deal with criminal incidents, they need to use a lot of cognitive resources to judge the threat of the other party, and use the remaining cognitive resources to judge other things. At this time, they may be affected by psychological shortcuts such as stereotypes to process target information. Spencer claims that “Implicit biases will most influence judgment and behavior when a situation is ambiguous. Individuals rely more, consciously or unconsciously, on prejudice and stereotypes when attempting to resolve uncertain circumstances.” (Spencer, Katherine B et al, 2-3) Compared with normal citizens, the role of the police is bound to face more criminals and social pressure. This allows them to receive more stimulation in their lives to deepen their Implicit Bias. In the process of law enforcement, in the face of danger from criminals and self-life, there will be greater psychological pressure. At that moment, Implicit Bias also had a greater weight in the judgments made by the police.
The research found that Implicit Bias not only positively influences law enforcement officers, for example, prompting police officers to be more sensitive to groups with stereotypes. At the same time, it will also lead to other judgments of the police on the law enforcement methods of different races, it may even cause officers to hesitate longer than whites when confronting black criminals. Author James and his team take a stand against the debate over whether police decisions to use lethal weapons are subject to suspected racial bias, arguing that police are more reluctant to shoot black suspects than white suspects. In the study, the authors' team used a more immersive approach to examine police and non-police ordinary people's responses to blacks and whites, as well as judgments about the use of lethal weapons. The results of the experiment found that participants shot armed black suspects longer than armed white suspects, and they were less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects. In other words, they were more hesitant and cautious when deciding to shoot black suspects. In the experiment's 1517 simulated scenarios, while keeping the suspect's demeanor, language, dress, distance from the participant, movement, location, sound and light levels constant, testers shot an armed black suspect more than the average time. 200 ms more for white armed suspects. “Officers were slightly more than three times less likely to shoot unarmed Black suspects than unarmed White suspects.” (James, Vila. et al, 1-4) Faced with this result, the authors believe that the possibility of this result is related to racism. The possibilities stem from concerns about the social and legal consequences of shooting members of historically oppressed racial groups. Publicity campaigns by the media also interfere to some extent with police and non-police participants' judgments about the situation. These evidences are sufficient to show that differences in race do have a greater impact on police officers' judgments. But the evidence is not sufficient to generalize whether the effect is positive or negative.
Mental health and state of mind were also found to have a high impact on police judgement in the study. It has been shown in multiple resources that the police are a professional group with a high incidence of psychological problems. Each police officer will encounter an average of more than 100 major incidents in his career, which will have a huge impact on their mental health and thinking. Police officers with poor mental state often have difficulty recognizing this on their own, and the consequent work will affect the judgement of the officers. [see work citied page 2,5] In Embodying the Police: The Effects of Enclothed Cognition on Shooting Decisions, researchers argue that police officers' psychological factors can bias people's misjudgment of danger. (Mendoza, Saaid A et al, 1-3) Evidence in it shows that when officers believe that the police have the right rights, the police have a greater chance of misjudging the threat of the target, and the accompanying Faster shooting unarmed civilians. Members who were cautious about police abuse of power showed a more accurate judgment rate in the test. They left more time for themselves to judge whether the other party was a threatening target, and they were more cautious about shooting.
The police, as the maintainers of public order and the enforcers of the law, are also human beings like the public. Although they have undergone various trainings, they still make their own judgments in the case from the perspective of an ordinary human being. The results of the study suggest that when it comes to black and other minority cases, the police's judgment process can be affected by a variety of factors, including the subconscious mind, Implicit Bias, and psychological public opinion pressure. However, the specific consequences of these effects vary from person to person. In my research, I found that there is not a lot of evidence to support whether the impact of prejudice on people is positive or negative. In the examples, I analyzed above, the effects and pros and cons of bias are not entirely uniform. In these areas, more research is needed.
For now, in the training and training process of police officers, more attention should be paid to strengthening the awareness of racial justice in police affairs, and maintaining the mental health and calm attitude of police officers in law enforcement. These actions will improve the police's ability to make fair, lawful and sound judgments in cases involving blacks and other racial minorities. While prejudice and stereotypes are still pervasive in the United States, they will gradually fade in the enforcement process as society turns back against racism on a large scale.
Work Citied Page
SPENCER, K. B.; CHARBONNEAU, A. K.; GLASER, J. Implicit Bias and Policing. Social & Personality Psychology Compass, [s. l.], v. 10, n. 1, p. 50–63, 2016. DOI 10.1111/spc3.12210. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=112192841&site=ehost- live&scope=site. Acesso em: 1 fev. 2022.
What is the extent of the Mental Health Crisis in law enforcement? Police1. (2019, June 6). Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.police1.com/health-wellness/articles/what-is-the-extent- of-the-mental-health-crisis-in-law-enforcement-cllCyo3PZxD3vy3z/
JAMES, L.; JAMES, S. M.; VILA, B. J. The Reverse Racism Effect. Criminology & Public Policy, [s. l.], v. 15, n. 2, p. 457–479, 2016. DOI 10.1111/1745-9133.12187. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=115423498&site=ehost- live&scope=site. Acesso em: 31 jan. 2022.
MENDOZA, S. A.; PARKS-STAMM, E. J. Embodying the Police: The Effects of Enclothed Cognition on Shooting Decisions. Psychological Reports, [s. l.], v. 123, n. 6, p. 2353–2371, 2020. DOI 10.1177/0033294119860261. Disponível em: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=146205983&site=ehost- live&scope=site. Acesso em: 31 jan. 2022.
Walden University. “5 Reasons the Mental Health of Police Officers Needs to Be a Priority.” Walden University, Walden University, 17 Sept. 2021, https://www.waldenu.edu/programs/criminal- justice/resource/five-reasons-the-mental-health-of-police-officers-needs-to-be-a-priority.
Western B, Travis J, Redburn S ed. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States. Washington, D.C. National Research Council; 2014.
Liska, Alan E. and Jiang Yu. 1992. Specifying and testing the threat hypothesis: Police use of deadly force. In ( Alan E. Liska, ed.), Social Threat and Social Control. Albany : State University of New York Press.
Greenwald, A. G., Poehlman, T. A., Uhlmann, E., & Banaji, M. R. ( 2009 ). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta‐analysis of predictive validity. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 97, 17 – 41.
Brown, J. M., & Langan, P. A. (2001). Policing and homicide 1976–98: Justifiable homicide by police, police officers murdered by felons. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
What is the extent of the Mental Health Crisis in law enforcement? Police1. (2019, June 6). Retrieved January 31, 2022, from https://www.police1.com/health-wellness/articles/what-is-the-extent- of-the-mental-health-crisis-in-law-enforcement-cllCyo3PZxD3vy3z/