Citation

Price JH, Payton E. J. Afr. Am. Stud. 2017; 21(4): 674-683.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12111-017-9383-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Implicit bias seems to be a universal primitive function of all brains. Police officers have been found to have near universal implicit bias against racial and ethnic minorities. This does not mean that discriminatory behavior (explicit bias) has to inevitably follow. Reports of police use of lethal force have found that African Americans are far more likely to be shot and killed than their numbers in the population would predict. The actual number of individuals killed by police is not certain since the reporting of lethal force by police departments is voluntary. Evidence suggests that appropriate training of police can help reduce any tendency for police officers to exhibit discriminatory lethal violence against African Americans. We recommend the following changes: required reporting of all police shootings and the circumstances surrounding the shootings, counter training for implicit bias for all police officers, organizational policy and legislative reforms for law enforcement, and more diligent prosecution of inappropriate use of lethal force by police officers.

Language: en