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Running Head: JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES FINAL PAPER

Journal of Social Issues Final Paper

Naomi Griffin

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

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The introduction article which I have chosen for my topic is titled, “What Social Science

Research Says about Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities: Understanding the

Antecedents and Consequences-An Introduction.” My chosen topic is the marginalization of and

use of police force against BIPOC (black and indigenous people of color) individuals. Excessive

and disproportionate violence against black minorities and people of color have always been a

serious issue, like a personal pandemic that black people face that due to recent years and more

cameras, have been coming to light more frequently. Dukes and Kahn (2017) stated that between

2015 and 2016, 405 unarmed human beings, 30% being African Americans, were murdered by

law enforcement in the United States. The fact that African Americans only make up 12 to 15%

of the U.S. population yet they make up most of police related homicides suggest that police

officers are more influenced by the perceived suspect’s race and skin color than the criminal

activity and suspect’s behavior. However, the introductory article also points out that the

problem is deeper than a significant number of racist cops in North America’s police force. It is

the history, the very origin of the American police force that is the root cause of the terror

African Americans face. A police force that is derived from southern slave catchers could not be

possibly expected to “protect and serve” all Americans, they can only be expected to uphold the

status quo.

It is well known that police officers view themselves and each other as part of a “blue

family” and they are required to be attentive of one another’s safety and surroundings. Police

officers are focused only on the safety of themselves and their ingroup and may feel

hypervigilant when around perceived threats such as African American males. Thorson et al.,

(2021) suggested that individuals who are either consciously or unconsciously emotionally and

psychologically in tune with one another can alter one another's physiological responses. It was
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found that the greater the strength of the physiological relationship between team members, the

better the chance that groups were more likely to make decisions in favor of the “sender” of the

physiological responses. Police officers do not necessarily need to be high ranking to gain the

attention and physiological response from their colleagues, they only need to present themselves

confidently and with conviction in what they are doing. This research when applied to police

officers, could suggest that a police officer who is responding to a call involving a black suspect,

could potentially physiologically influence other police officers arriving on scene to also believe

that the suspect is indeed a threat and act accordingly without accurately assessing the situation

for themselves.

The prevalence of the disproportionate and unjustified murders of African Americans at

the hands of rogue police officers may also be exacerbated by the concept of intergroup anxiety,

which is the feeling of anxiety that is caused by interacting with certain outgroups, specific

people of other races and ethnicities, or outgroups. According to Stephan (2014), people can

experience intergroup anxiety in three different domains, affectively, cognitively, and

physiologically. Intergroup anxiety can affect an individual emotionally by making them feel

apprehensive, uneasy, uncomfortable, and stressed. The affective component is usually negative.

Several studies cited by Stephan (2014) proved that white people may report more state anxiety

and discomfort when interacting with and anticipating interactions with African Americans. This

may indicate that police officers do in fact feel more tense and uneasy when interacting with

African American suspects.

Cognitive processes can be influenced by intergroup anxiety by that if for example, if

white individuals anticipate negative interactions or consequences with interacting with

outgroups, their thinking can be cognitively reappraised to facilitate higher anxiety. Individuals
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anticipating negative interaction and outcomes with outgroups may experience heightened

physiological arousal as well. Stephan also stated that personality traits such as being prejudiced,

intolerant, having low self-esteem and self-confidence, lack of empathy, lack in cognitive

complexity, a demand for submitting to authority, hostility, increased aggression, and a strong

group identity (proud to be white) attitude may increase someone experiencing inner group

anxiety. These personality traits are usually characteristic of police officers, and these traits are

also in tandem with the right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation personality

traits described in the introductory article.

Charlesworth and Banaji (2019) found that, unsurprisingly, explicit racial attitudes have

moved toward a nonracist, neutral attitude by 37%, and implicit racial attitudes have only moved

toward an attitude of neutrality by only 17%. Racial attitudes were projected to reach attitude

neutrality by August 2073. Implicit attitudes regarding skin tone are not predicted to reach

neutrality until July 2154. Baumeister et al. (2019) explained that people try to make sense of

others and the world by placing labels on people or categorizing them. Based on their research

on how people are inclined to think about others, police officers may see that outgroup as almost

the same (all black and Asian people look the same, etc.) perceive the outgroup as more

animalistic (less human), place more value on ingroup members’ lives, and expect outgroup

members to be predisposed toward negative attitudes against them, just to name a few examples.

The amygdala is a key component of the neural pathways that are responsible for our

psychosocial behavior and regulation of processes such as vigilance regulation, fear

conditioning, threat detection, and associative learning. Amodio (2014) reported studies that

found when white participants viewed black faces, the results suggested that there was implicit

bias. There was a greater startle response measured when viewing black faces opposed to other
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white or Asian faces, and upon viewing black faces, particularly darker faces, white participants

experienced heightened amygdala activation. Amygdala activation was also increased with direct

eye contact, superficial judgements and situations involving racial threats. Probable explanations

were fear conditioning against racial outgroups, the worry over perceiving prejudiced, and being

goal-directed and focused on the ingroup (Amodio, 2014). However, in a stop and frisk or any

other police-African American citizen interaction, the police officer may not be concerned with

whether they are perceived as prejudiced, but that the individual they are approaching is “a

threat.” In many cases of African Americans, and as research states, black citizens are deemed as

threats by police officers regardless of if they are complying or not (Dukes & Kahn, 2017).

Kovera (2019) detailed in her article African Americans are grossly disproportionately

marginalized in the United States by police officers in areas such as traffic stops, stop and frisk

searches, use of force, both lethal and nonlethal, and arrests. She also detailed disparities in the

American prison system such as charges, arraignment hearings, pretrial detention, plea deals,

sentencing, wrongful convictions and jury selection. Typically, except for the recent conviction

of Derek Chauvin, racist (and murderous) police officers (and citizens, think George

Zimmerman), who are charged with murdering unarmed black men and women are usually not

convicted and the killer cop goes free. A factor of this may be that black jurors are less likely to

be picked to have a place in the jury box, and there is no law against lawyers excluding jurors

based on race (Kovera, 2019).

It was found that repeatedly experiencing racism and oppression could eventually lead to

internalized messages of the oppressor, feelings of inferiority, confusion of identity, alienation

from one's race, and self-doubt (David et al., 2019). From personal observation and experience,

dealing with repeated harassment from the police and overt and covert racism from other people
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could most likely lead to feeling symptoms of depression, anxiety, hopelessness, not belonging,

stress and physiological symptoms like gastrointestinal problems and headaches.

Scott et al. (2017) asked an important question in their article - after controlling for racial

differences in criminal activity, are police officers still more likely to shoot black suspects than

white suspects? Exploring two different perspectives to attempt to explore the underlying origin

of the inconsistency and the use of force between African American and Caucasian suspects. The

first perspective is described as racially biased policing (RBP), which proposes that police

officers will use excessive force against an African American suspect versus a white suspect

despite criminal behavior, the suspect’s demeanor, clothing, neighborhood, etc. being similar or

equal. The second perspective is known as differential criminal activity (DCA), which states that

officers yourself use of force with African Americans is consistent with Caucasian suspects and

that their level of violence or force matches the threat level in the community. This position

proposes that police officers are in fact not influenced by race, but that perhaps African

American suspects react to officers in a more violent manner resulting in more shootings.

Scott et al. conducted an analysis of comparing police involved African American

shootings to white shootings using a very large data set of analyzing 213 metropolitan statistical

areas (MSA) over a 21 - year span from 1980 to 2000. The purpose of this analysis set out to

answer a couple of questions: 1) explore the extent to which the proportion of African American

citizens in an MSA predicts racial discrepancy and shootings 2) the rate in which racial

discrepancy and police related shootings increases in metropolitan areas where African

American suspects are recorded to commit more crime as evidenced by arrest rates 3) after

controlling for crime rates and individual characteristics, such as racial differences, are police
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officers still more likely to shoot African American suspects than white suspects when there is

no difference in level of aggression, hostility, etc.

Results indicated that African American suspects were arrested and shot at a much higher

rate than white suspects. In urban, populated areas, police are more likely to shoot and kill

suspects in general, however they are more likely to kill suspects if they are African American

versus if they are white. They also found that in metropolitan communities that African

Americans have an increased probability of being arrested, they are also slightly more likely to

be killed, which is in support of a differential criminal activity perspective. A regression analysis

found that police are more likely to kill an African American suspect than a white suspect, even

when controlling for suspect characteristics such as race and criminal activity. Overall, their data

is consistent with a racially biased policing account.

The researchers of this article state that the results of their findings are not consistent with

the data that states that reducing racial bias in police training has been effective in enabling

police officers to be fairer and more accurate regarding shooting black and white suspects.

Simulated tasks showed that well most police officers did not show bias in deciding to shoot

black and white targets, they did have a difference in response times in making their decisions.

Officers were also more likely to mistakenly shoot African Americans more than white suspects.

Three explanations are offered as to why this discrepancy may occur which is the nature of the

officers’ training and experience, the context of the shooting, and the impact of high stress and

psychological processes.

This research could be used to inform how trends correlates with each other in different

parts of for United States. although this research attempts to provide possible explanations as to
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the discrepancies, police officers maybe more inclined to shoot black people because of the

white supremacy based, racist conditioning that is built into American culture.

Dukes & Gaither (2017) explored racial stereotypes and prejudice of African American

murder victims in the media and how these racial biases influenced public opinion on the victim

and suspect. They investigated how negative and positive black stereotypes detailing the victim

can illicit feelings of victim blaming, sympathy, and empathy towards a victim and feelings of

blame and retribution on the suspect. As one might guess, the researchers hypothesized that

African American victims who were painted in more negative light, such as being involved with

drugs, having a criminal record, etc. would elicit more blame and less empathy from the

participants, where is the opposite would be true if the victim were presented in a more positive,

pro social light. For example, if they were displayed as a working father or mother, with no

criminal history, who was educated, the African American victim may elicit more feelings of

sympathy and empathy, and less feelings of blame. consequently, murderers of victims who were

painted in a more positive light would elicit feelings of sympathy and empathy, as well as less

blame and responsibility. They would also illicit lesser sentencing recommendations from

participants. The researchers also explored if similar negative stereotypes would impact white

victims as well.

A 2 (Victim Information: Negative or Positive) × 2 (Victim Race: Black or White) × 2

(Shooter Race: Black or White) between-subjects Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVAs) was used

controlling for racial prejudice, and hypotheses were proven to be true in this study. The

researchers found that regardless of race, black stereotypical information inclines the participant

to view the victim as having more responsibility and blame. The study also found that when

African American victims are portrayed in a positive light, African American shooters maybe
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perceived more harshly and at fault then white shooters. White victims were also viewed as more

at fault and received more blame than African American victims and this could be due to

research indicating that more socially accepted individuals should know better therefore, they

placed themselves in that position. Additionally, empathy and sympathy with the victim were

significantly influenced on whether the victim was presented in a positive non stereotypical

verses a negative stereotypical view. Events in which there was a white victim with a black

shooter were inconclusive, but it should be further explored (Dukes & Gaither, 2017).

As for sympathy and empathy with the shooter, this variable was significantly impacted

when positive, non-stereotypical information was presented about the victim. However, when

considering the actions of the victim and shooter, the participants often empathized with the

shooter when the shooter was white as opposed to when the shooter was black especially when

the shooter was white, and the victim was black. Lastly, shooters of victim who were portrayed

in positive, non-stereotypical African American perspectives were given longer sentence

disposition, and African American shooters have an increased probability of receiving longer

sentences for the same crimes compared to white shooters especially when the victim was seen

as positive (Dukes & Gaither, 2017).

The results show that even when raised is controlled for in the shooting situation, fault

and blame did not have as significant of an effect empathizing with the victim, and that a more

racial ingroup outgroup component what is more at play. Despite interracial elements playing a

role, it is still noted that perceptions by the media can have a drastic effect on sympathy for the

victim and shooter and can happen out come on the trial of the shooter. The researchers proposed

that new legislature should be put in place too control what information can be released about

victims. Because of the power of the media and their influence, they have an ethical and moral
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obligation to accurately portray ethnic minorities who are victims of traumatic events (Dukes &

Gaither, 2017).

The introductory article stated that police officers’ implicit and explicit racial biases

impact their ability to perform their duties in a nondiscriminatory, nonracist, and fair manner. I

personally think that it is crucial for psychological evaluations with the purpose of screening

potential police officers for employment to focus on detecting deep seated implicitly held racial

attitudes without making it obvious to the test taker that the measure is looking for racial bias

that may exclude them from the job. Collateral data by way of interviews with minority

coworkers from past jobs and/or minority peers and teachers from schools and other minority

individuals as applicable should also be obtained. This would help to determine the explicit

nature of the potential police officers’ racial attitudes and behaviors in previous professional and

social settings.

There is also an extreme lack of national level legislation that protects minorities,

particularly black minorities against racial profiling in violence in policing in the United States.

African Americans are more likely to be shot by the police no matter what the context of the

situation, and this is particularly reinforced if the African American suspect presents as a

stereotypical criminally involved African American male from a poor neighborhood. I believe

that research such as this can be used to inform legislature to create laws that are similar to other

countries that protect minorities from excessive nonlethal and lethal force. Personally, this article

was angering, but none of it was surprising.

I noticed that I had a strong reaction to Scott et al. (2017), section about police officers

possibly being more aggressive with African Americans, because African Americans may be

more aggressive and more likely to be involved with violent crime. I immediately had thoughts
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of Timothy McVeigh, Dylan Roof, James Holmes, Adam Lanza, Nikolas Cruz, Elliot Rodger,

and the Columbine shooters. Caucasian people are more likely than any other race to commit

mass murder and even multiple murders (AKA serial killings), yet unarmed African Americans

are perceived as threats and are even less likely to have a weapon (Scott, et al., 2017). African

Americans are the most impoverished race in the United States. When you have a race of people

who are impoverished, crime rates are bound to go up. This does not mean that African

Americans are innately found to commit more crime than others. When you redline housing,

isolate people from jobs, grocery stores to get access to healthy food and other life necessities,

have no coping skills and abuse drugs and alcohol, crime rates could only be expected to

increase with any race.

My reaction to Dukes & Gaither (2017) instead this research article is very important to

the literature, and it is very informative, however I am not very surprised by the results. More of

this literature needs to be dispersed and used to educate the public. Even though there are

individuals who will ignore information like this and believe what they want, it is important to

go out into the world and educate people as to how potential media portrayals can influence their

thoughts and feelings toward a victim. It could also bring that to light and implicit bias that

individuals did not know that they had. For my education, I feel that it is very important as an

African American female to continue to pursue to achieve my goals and use my platform to

educate others on the dangers of overt and covert racism. I personally feel like it is white people's

responsibility to do everything they can to educate themselves and each other to move toward a

more integrated self with a healthy, balanced white racial identity. As a future psychologist, I can

facilitate Caucasian clients on moving closer to this journey. It may even be beneficial to
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recommend articles such as these to clients who are struggling with a white racial identity and

the social events that are currently taking place in the world today.

References

Amodio, D. M. (2014). The neuroscience of prejudice and stereotyping. Nature Reviews

Neuroscience, 15(10), 670–682. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3800 

Baumeister, R. F., Finkel, E. J., Dovidio, J., & Jones, J. (2019). Prejudice, Stereotyping, and

Discrimination. In Advanced social psychology: the state of the science (2nd ed., pp. 275–

294). Oxford University Press.

Charlesworth, T. E., & Banaji, M. R. (2019). Patterns of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes: I. Long-

Term Change and Stability From 2007 to 2016. Psychological Science, 30(2), 174–192.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618813087

David, E. J., Schroeder, T. M., & Fernandez, J. (2019). Internalized Racism: A Systematic

Review of the Psychological Literature on Racism's Most Insidious Consequence. Journal

of Social Issues, 75(4), 1057–1086. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12350 

Dukes, K. N., & Gaither, S. E. (2017). Black Racial Stereotypes and Victim Blaming:

Implications for Media Coverage and Criminal Proceedings in Cases of Police Violence

against Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 789–807.

https://doi-org.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/josi.12248

Dukes, K. N., & Kahn, K. B. (2017). What Social Science Research Says about Police Violence
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against Racial and Ethnic Minorities: Understanding the Antecedents and Consequences-

An Introduction. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 690–700. https://doi-

org.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/josi.12242

Kovera, M. B. (2019). Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: Prevalence, Causes, and

a Search for Solutions. Journal of Social Issues, 75(4), 1139–1164. https://doi-

org.tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/josi.12355

Scott, K., Ma, D. S., Sadler, M. S., & Correll, J. (2017). A Social Scientific Approach toward

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Justice (1980-2000). Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 701–722. https://doi-

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Stephan, W. G. (2014). Intergroup Anxiety. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(3),

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Thorson, K. R., Dumitru, O. D., Mendes, W. B., West, T. V. (2019). Influencing the

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