3 ms·
The point is that there are two explanations for the difference observed. One is that white police make the correct amount of arrests, and black police make too
by dash2 6y ago
The point is that there are two explanations for the difference observed. One is that white police make the correct amount of arrests, and black police make too few. Another is that white police make too many arrests, and black police make the right amount. The paper seems to assume the latter (I only scanned it very quickly).
Perhaps to someone who lives in Chicago, it’s “obvious” which of these is true. But that’s not usually good enough for science: we want to base our claims on evidence, not on our intuitions.
- jariel 6y agoYes, but we of course know it's way more complicated than 'too few or many arrests'. As to the OP, I would argue the job of police is really to just 'keep a lid on things'. We don't not run around killing each other because 'policing' - we don't do it because it's immoral, wrong, self-defeating etc.. Solving 'high crime' probably necessitates a whole slew of social things, including policing - and once the situation arrives at something resembling civil, the police deal with crimes that are more or less rare and on the margins. Or more serious things like organized crime. In my suburban upbringing I barely ever saw police, and I think I had one interaction with them regarding a traffic ticket. It's literally the only time I've had an interaction with law enforcement growing up. I didn't know a single person growing up who interacted with the police in any more than those terms. If you can get a community to that point of stability/baseline prosperity, policing is something different entirely than 'there are 50 people shot this weekend, gangs control parts of town, kids going to school face real violence'.