Nathaniel L. Lawshe’s research while affiliated with Northeastern University and other places

Body-worn cameras have proliferated in law enforcement agencies over the past decade. Yet, studies examining the relevance of place for body-worn camera adoption are sparse. This study investigated the spatial distribution and contextual correlates of body-worn cameras in the USA. Using data from the 2016, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey linked to the 2016 American Community Survey, this study examined spatial dependence in body-worn camera adoption across US counties and whether higher levels of concentrated disadvantage in an agency’s jurisdiction increased the odds of body-worn camera adoption. LISA (local indicator of spatial association) and colocation maps indicated that counties with body-worn cameras and high levels of concentrated disadvantage were clustered and colocated almost entirely in southern states. Two-level logistic hierarchical models indicated that county-level disadvantage played key roles in predicting body-worn camera adoption. Findings suggest that research should account for the context in which body-worn cameras are adopted.

There is evidence that body-worn cameras decrease rates of police use of force and improve citizens’ perceptions of police legitimacy. Yet, research examining the processes leading agencies to adopt body-worn cameras is sparse. Using the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) data from U.S. police agencies of all sizes, this study examines the relevance of institutional perviousness for body-worn camera adoption. Perviousness governs the chances that an organization adopts a new policy or practice, as well as the extent to which an organization is internally aligned to implement the new innovation. Results demonstrate that perviousness increases the odds of agency body-worn camera adoption, alongside other organizational characteristics. The findings suggest that future research should consider the potential impact of perviousness when investigating other organizational outputs.

Hate crime is defined by the FBI as a criminal offense motivated by bias against the following protected categories: race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity. There are three official sources of hate crime data in the United States: the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), the National Incident‐Based Reporting System (NIBRS, part of the UCR reporting program), and the NCVS (National Crime Victimization Survey). According to the FBI in 2018, of the 16,039 agencies that participated in the UCR reporting program, 2,026 agencies reported a total of 7,120 hate crime incidents. Both the UCR and NCVS reveal that victims were most commonly targeted due to their perceived race/ethnicity. Recommendations to reduce hate crime include condemnation of the hate incident by community leaders and proper identification and prosecution of criminal acts of hate.

Literature has documented racial and ethnic disparities in resident fatalities by the police and police fatalities by residents. Yet, there has been a lack of research on police-resident relationships within Hispanic communities. Additionally, research has rarely considered the relevance of social context for fatal police-resident encounters or examined resident and police fatalities concurrently. We use data on 7,125 fatal police-resident encounters nested within 1,739 agencies and 1,506 U.S. census-designated places from 2000–2016 to examine whether macro-level racial and ethnic composition distinguishes resident fatalities and police fatalities. Results indicated that the odds of resident fatalities relative to police fatalities were significantly higher in majority Hispanic than majority white places. Racial disparities persisted in mixed-race places with at least 20% Hispanic residents. Furthermore, disparities were only observed in highly disadvantaged places, suggesting that racial and ethnic composition and structural disadvantage must be considered concomitantly to contextualize fatal police-resident encounters.