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Full-Text Articles in Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance
Police Frisks, David S. Abrams, Hanming Fang, Priyanka Goonetilleke
Police Frisks, David S. Abrams, Hanming Fang, Priyanka Goonetilleke
All Faculty Scholarship
The standard economic model of police stops implies that the contraband hit rate should rise when the number of stops falls, ceteris paribus. We provide empirical corroboration of such optimizing models of police behavior by examining changes in stops and frisks around two extraordinary events of 2020 - the pandemic onset and the nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd. We find that hit rates from pedestrian and vehicle stops generally rose as stops and frisks fell dramatically. Using detailed data, we are able to rule out a number of alternative explanations, including changes in street population, crime, police …
Does Diversity Matter? Police Violence, Minority Representation, And Urban Policing, Maddy Mcvaugh
Does Diversity Matter? Police Violence, Minority Representation, And Urban Policing, Maddy Mcvaugh
PPPA Paper Prize
This paper argues that, while increasing officer diversity may prove beneficial to some urban departments, for the majority, increased diversity within law enforcement does not substantially decrease the amount of violence towards racial minorities due to police culture and institutional practices. Specifically, I examine how structural policing methods target and excessively monitor Black and Hispanic communities, which leads to increased police encounters. Through police culture, these increased encounters then create further opportunities for acts of violence to be used against these minority communities. I begin by discussing several claims regarding the value of increased officer diversity. I then discuss why …