Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Black And Blue: Exploring Racial Bias And Law Enforcement In The Killings Of Unarmed Black Male Civilians, Alison V. Hall, Erika V. Hall, Jamie Perry

Jamie Perry

In late 2014, a series of highly publicized police killings of unarmed Black male civilians in the United States prompted large-scale social turmoil. In the current review, we dissect the psychological antecedents of these killings and explain how the nature of police work may attract officers with distinct characteristics that may make them especially well-primed for negative interactions with Black male civilians. We use media reports to contextualize the precipitating events of the social unrest as we ground our explanations in theory and empirical research from social psychology and industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology. To isolate some of the key …