Elizabeth Arias

December 2, 2020
Soc 300- Sociological Imagination
Professor Darializa Avila Chevalier
Quantitative Research on Police use of Force

In the journal Police use of Excessive Force in Minority Communities: A Test of the

Minority Threat, Place, and Community Accountability Hypothesis by Brad W. Smith and

Malcolm D. Holmes, we review the threat against minority groups by police officers. Their

hypothesis being that “the greater proportion of minority residents in cities, the greater the use

of coercive crime control mechanisms.” (p1) Stating that because cities are built of a greater

proportion of minorities, there is likely less methods of controlling and coercing crime. In this

journal they combined data from many different sources with cities with more than 100,000

residents. In the findings of this report, they will state the threat of the hypothesis but also

“indicate that place effects are contingent on the existence of a very high degree of

racial/ethnic segregation.” (pg1) Smith and Holmes use a quantitative research method to find

the answer to their hypothesis.

In the study, Smith and Holmes included four types of categories towards their

independent variables in a statistical model. “These tables encapsulate the minority threat,

place, and community accountability, as well as certain other city characteristics that were used

as controls.” (p90) These tables basically represent the amount of complaints placed by citizens

against police officers involving the use of excess force. In their findings, they conclude that

their hypothesis was unaltered. Smith and Holmes concluded that police officers have a certain
psychological response when handling minorities. “Their responses to minority citizens are

likely a manifestation of their unique interests and of normal social psychological processes

triggered in interactions with minorities in the milieu of street-level policing, particularly in

disadvantaged areas.” (p98) They believe that this can be an effect of the black segregation

variable. They believe that police officers learn to associate minority neighborhoods with

“crimes, danger and challenges to authority.” (p98)

Smith and Holmes did rigorous research to come up with their findings. They also used

various methods, as well as resources to help them reach their hypothesis. The data they

collected and used were from five different sources, “2000 and 2003 Law Enforcement

Management and Administrative Statistics survey (LEMAS) by the Bureau of Justice Statistics

(2006, 2008); the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) for 2003 (U.S. FBI 2005); the CensusScope

website created by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) at the University of

Michigan (n.d.); and the 2000 U.S. Census (U.S. Census Bureau 2004). There were a total of 245

Census designated places with 100,000 or more residents in 2000.” (p89) In these analyses they

included 218 which is 94 percent of the 232 cities of over 100,000 residents as their study.

These are all government sources and are reliable in terms of statistical research.

My theory topic is Police use of Force and this journal entry by Smith and Holmes help

with concluded my hypothesis and research. In my paper I write about the excessive use of

force against minorities and what could be done about it. In conclusion, their research has

helped me find a statistical number to how many minorities are targeted in cities all around us.
 Resources

Brad W. Smith, & Malcolm D. Holmes. (2014). Police Use of Excessive Force in Minority

Communities: A Test of the Minority Threat, Place, and Community Accountability

Hypotheses. Social Problems, 61(1), 83-104. doi:10.1525/sp.2013.12056