Addressing Racial Disparities in Police Use of Force

This chapter deals with a comparative justice issue—racial disparities in police use of force. It shows that social science research has established that Blacks and Hispanics are substantially disadvantaged by comparison with Whites as far as stop-question-and-frisk are concerned. A more nuanced conclusion is warranted for police use of deadly force given scholarly disagreement about the pertinent data. This said, it’s nonetheless clear that greater police restraint is in order here as well.