Racial Disparities in Fatal Police Shootings: An Empirical Analysis Informed by Critical Race Theory

Although the use of excessive force by police has been a concern within communities of color for decades, the issue recently reached the public consciousness through media coverage of a number of high-profile police killings of unarmed Black victims. In explaining these events, the common understanding has been that there are some “bad apples” among police forces who exert excessive force due to personal conscious bias or implicit racial bias. The most widespread institutional response has been the implementation of implicit bias trainings and the use of body cameras to shape and monitor individual police-citizen interactions. This Essay adopts a different perspective. Using critical race theory and the Public Health Critical Race Praxis, it asks a novel set of questions regarding the marked racial disparities in police violence. In particular, it attempts to explain the striking differences in the magnitude of racial disparities in fatal police shootings across states and major U.S. cities. The Essay reviews research that examines structural racism as a possible explanation for the “disparities in racial disparities” across spaces and considers the potential role of racially identified spaces in molding the way police officers perceive not only individuals but also entire neighborhoods. It concludes that individual-level interventions cannot adequately address racial disparities in fatal police violence and that confronting and remedying the consequences of a long history of racial residential segregation and structural racism is necessary.  M.D.; M.P.H.; Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health. 1070 BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 100:1069