Race and Police Brutality : Roots of an Urban Dilemma

by Holmes, Malcolm D.; Smith, Brad W.

• ISBN13: 9780791476192
• ISBN10: 0791476197
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-11-06
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

What causes police brutality, and why are minority citizens the primary victims? Social scientists often attribute the behavior to poorly managed police departments, bad cops, or the interests of the powerful in controlling minorities perceived as criminal threats. Malcolm D. Holmes and Brad W. Smith contend that these explanations fail to identify key causes of police misconduct, particularly the use of excessive force. Focusing on the interaction of ordinary social-psychological processes and the disadvantaged conditions of minority neighborhoods, Holmes and Smith develop an integrated model of police brutality that takes into account contemporary theory and research on social identity, stereotypes, and emotions-factors that produce intergroup tensions and may trigger unwarranted acts of aggression. Their approach overcomes existing theoretical difficulties and raises the question of how this complex social problem might be effectively addressed. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Malcolm D. Holmes is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wyoming Brad W. Smith is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Wayne State University

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Nature of Police Brutality	p. 1
What Is Police Brutality?	p. 6
How Can Police Brutality Be Explained?	p. 7
Outline of an Alternative Theory	p. 12
Social Threat and Police Violence	p. 17
Police Organization and Police Violence in American History	p. 21
Group-Conflict Theory	p. 25
Police-Minority Conflict	p. 28
Police-Minority Conflicts and Police Violence	p. 34
Social Identity and Ingroup Bias	p. 37
Cognitive Perspectives on Intergroup Relations	p. 38
The Social Identity Model	p. 40
Social Identity and Policing	p. 44
Racial and Ethnic Identity	p. 49
Social Identity and Police-Minority Relations	p. 52
Stereotyping and Outgroup Bias	p. 57
The Information Processing Model	p. 58
Cultural Stereotypes of Race and Crime	p. 68
Stereotyping and the Working Personality of the Police Officer	p. 70
Minority Stereotypes of Police	p. 74
Stereotypes and Police-Minority Relations	p. 76
The Emotional Roots of Intergroup Relations	p. 79
The Nature of Human Emotions	p. 82
The Emotions of the Police	p. 89
The Emotions of Minority Citizens	p. 92
Emotion and Cognition in Police-Minority Relations	p. 94
Translating Intergroup Biases into Intergroup Aggression	p. 97
The Dimensions of Intergroup Relations	p. 98
The Emotional and Cognitive Foundation of Aggression	p. 103
The Inseparability of Emotional and Cognitive Responses	p. 108
A Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Theory of Excessive Force	p. 111
Background Variables and Psychological Preconditions	p. 114
Threatening Situations and Mental Responses	p. 119
Mediators of Police Brutality	p. 122
Is Police Brutality Inevitable?	p. 125
Can Popular Policies Reduce Police Brutality?	p. 127
Changing Police Organizations to Change Police Behavior	p. 128
Prospects for Organizational Reforms	p. 138
Roots of an Urban Dilemma	p. 143
Notes	p. 153
References	p. 157
Index	p. 181
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