Research Guides: Rutgers-Camden Anti-Racism Book Study: So You Want to Talk About Race: Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Is police brutality really about race?

Police Brutality By The Numbers

The resources in this section provide data related to racial disparities in rates of police brutality and police shootings.

Nature, "What the Data Say About Police Brutality and Racial Bias"
NAACP, “Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”
The Guardian, "The Counted: People Killed By The Police In The US"
Statista, "Number Of People Shot To Death By The Police, By Race"
Mappling Police Violence Project
FBI, "National Use Of Force Data Collection"
The Washington Post, "Fatal Force"

Racial Profiling & "Driving While Black"

In this chapter, Oluo describes her experience of being pulled over by the police. The resources in this section relate to the disproportionately high number of traffic stops experienced by people of color ("driving while black") as well as related examples of racial profiling in policing.

The New York Times, “The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black"
The Washington Post, "The Big Question About Why Police Pull Over So Many Black Drivers"
Huffington Post, "Black People Ticketed for Not Wearing Seat Belts in Florida Twice as Often"
The Hartford Courant, "Blacks, Hispanics More Likely to be Ticketed After Traffic Stops"
NY Daily News, "Minorities Face Disproportionate Broken Windows Enforcement Everywhere"
ABC News, “Driving while Black: ABC News Analysis of Traffic Stops Reveals Racial Disparities in Several US Cities"
Vox, "Living While Black and the Criminalization of Blackness"
The New York Times, “Black Lives Upended by Policing: The Raw Videos Sparking Outrage”

Race and The Criminal Justice System

These resources focus more broadly on race and racism in the criminal justice system in the United States.

PBS, "American Police" (Podcast)
The Sentencing Project, “Report to the United Nations on Racial Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System"
The Sentencing Project, “State-by-State Data”
Policing Equity, "The Science Of Justice: Race, Arrests, And Police Use Of Force,"
Kappeler, V. E. 2014.. "A Brief History Of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing." Eastern Kentucky University Police Studies Online.
Hetey, R., & Eberhardt, J. 2018. The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves: Racial Disparities and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Justice System. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 183–187.
USA Today, "Who Are Police Protecting And Serving?"

Rutgers-Camden Anti-Racism Book Study: So You Want to Talk About Race

Chapter 6 - Is police brutality really about race?

Police Brutality By The Numbers

Racial Profiling & "Driving While Black"

Race and The Criminal Justice System

Police Brutality: Video