Annotations

Alang, S. (2018). The More Things Change, the More Things Stay the Same: Race, Ethnicity, and Police

Brutality. ​American Journal of Public Health​, ​108​(9), 1127–1128.

https://do-iorg.libproxy.lib.ilstu.edu/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304628

​This source talked about the increased chances that minority men have to be killed by police in an

encounter. The article goes on to talk about the history of violence against Hispanic men. Between

the years 1848 and 1928 hundred of Latinos have been estimated to have been killed by mobs in the

United States. In fact police even encouraged the violence by having the bodies sent to the center of

town. The article then proceeds to talk about the history of oppression that African American men

have faced with being discriminated against by police. Some of which talked about the stop and

frisk procedures, in which African Americans have a higher rate of being stopped than others.

Albrecht, J. F. (2011). Examining Police Discretion and the Use of Firearms Involving the New York City

Police Department. ​Pakistan Journal of Criminology,​ ​3​(2/3), 1–10. Retrieved from

http://libproxy.lib.ilstu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=i3h&AN=

89691177&site=eds-live&scope=site

​This source examines the use of police discretion and the steps that the New York City Police

Department are taking in order to minimize gun violence. The source also talked about how in the

past many precincts within the NYPD have started to use non lethal weapons, which have

contributed to a general decline in the rate of homicides since the 1990s. The source’s main point

suggests that a more restrictive use of the deadly force policy will result in less gun related deaths

for both citizens and police.

Braun, M., Rosenthal, J., & Therrian, K. (2018). Police Discretion and Racial Disparity in Organized

Retail Theft Arrests: Evidence from Texas. ​Journal of Empirical Legal Studies​, ​15​(4), 916–950.

https://doi-org.libproxy.lib.ilstu.edu/10.1111/jels.12201

This source talked about a study conducted by various researchers across a twenty year span. The

research focused on the apparent disparities in arrest rates across various ethnicities. The study put

a focus on the immediate decision made by a police officer. One of which was “​For which of these

two similarly defined crimes am I making an arrest?” Which essentially stated that given two men,

of different races who were charged with the same crime, how often would the white man be given

the less serious offense. The amount equated out to about twenty percent of the time, the white man

would be given the less serious offense.

Carter, J. S., & Corra, M. (2016). Racial Resentment and Attitudes Toward the Use of Force by Police:

An Over-Time Trend Analysis. ​Sociological Inquiry,​ ​86(​ 4), 492–511. ​https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12136

This source examines the racial tensions between police officers and people of color. The article

suggests that the reasons of the tensions come from the perceptions that many people have about

minorities and stereotypes that come with those perceptions. The article says that the officers

affected by these perceptions do not “try hard enough” to change their view, or not let their views

affect their work. The article also talks about the use of lethal force between different races, with

whites being more likely to exhibit lethal force rather than an African American police officer.

Morrow, W. J., Nuño, L. E., & Mulvey, P. (2018). Examining the Situational And Suspect-Level

Predictors of Police Use of Force Among a Juvenile Arrestee Population. ​Justice Policy Journal​, ​15(​ 1),

1–22. Retrieved from

http://libproxy.lib.ilstu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=i3h&AN=

131014470&site=eds-live&scope=site

This Source Examines the influencing factors that teens and young adults play in the use of force.

The source talks about how a person’s demeanor is everything when talking to police. In most

situations police will not exhibit use of force unless there is suspect resistance and if the resistance

grows. The article also examines that police will be more disrespectful and will use force more

quickly when the suspect is disrespectful. And are less inclined to use such harsh tactics if the

suspect is respectful.

Reflection Memo

Over the course of this project I examined five sources that tied into my major of Criminal

Justice. Many of the articles I chose correlated to police discretion and the issues within police

discretion. The reason why I chose for the article to relate to discretion and the issues with the

world of policing is that I feel I would be able to better the world of Criminal Justice, if I can

understand the issues within it. Some of my articles were very race based, and unfortunately

that is the society that we live in still. Many of the police issues are dictated by race and hatred,

with some of the issues resulting in the use of lethal force for a non lethal issue.

In the article by Sirry Alang, I found that many of the issues she talked about didn't really

offer many solutions with the issues she cited. I wish that she could have offered more of a

hopeful side rather than a degrade and bash the police side. Although the information she

offered was interesting and useful, I do wish she took another stance within the article.

In the article by Albrecht which examined the use of police firearms in New York City, I

thought it was a very well done article. I thought it examined the best parts of the issues facing

lethal force as well as offering very good statistical evidence that the preventative measures that
the city of New York is taking works. I also like that many precincts are installing non lethal

weapons for instances where lethal force is not needed.

For the article by Braun wich talked about the different treatments that each race could

be treated as. For example, if there were two men committing the same crime, but were different

races there would be different charges that could be given out to each individual. This part of

the article really spoke out to me, because going into Criminal Justice this is exactly the kind of

thing that I want to be about to change. Because in my eyes, this is what makes people have

such a negative view of the criminal justice system is the lack of equality within the system.

In the article by Carter, which talked about how many police officers are set in their

ways. This is another article in which i wish that the author would have offered a better solution

to this problem. Because it is not a hypothetical issue, it is real and very important and while the

article does a great job about talking about the issue and going into depth on it, it does not offer

any actual solutions to the issue. Other than that i thought it was a very good and informative

article.

And my last article by Morrow talks about the view that a policeman has towards the

public. This was one of my favorite articles because it was one of the first ones that didn’t bash

the police for two to three pages. Instead it looked at the reasons why something would happen

instead of saying this happened and the police are bad because of it. The main point that I really

liked from the article was that it laid out some very good ground rules for citizens to do when

interacting with police. Just be respectful of the police officer and the authority they have, if you

can do that there is a very good chance that the situation wouldn’t turn violent.