The Geography of Police Killings Utilising Crowdsourced Data

Abstract

Police have the legal authority to use deadly force, but its use has resulted in a backlash in some communities. This county-level analysis of 2,200 civilian deaths by police in the United States from 2015 and 2016 considers whether deadly force is primarily in response to high levels of crime (a consensus approach) or is the result of police response in socially and economically disadvantaged communities (a conflict approach). The results indicate that factors associated with economic and structural disadvantage matter more than levels of crime in accounting for the presence and number of police-involved deaths.