Race and Police Brutality
Roots of an Urban Dilemma
Malcolm D. Holmes, Brad W. Smith
- 196 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Race and Police Brutality
Roots of an Urban Dilemma
Malcolm D. Holmes, Brad W. Smith
About This Book
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 emotionsâfactors 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.