Rutgers researcher discusses why fatal police violence occurs in US

A recent Rutgers study ran a comparative analysis of rates of fatal police violence (FPV) in the U.S. and other countries, to determine why the former’s police lethality is especially high. 

The study, which used international FPV data, said that collecting reliable information on the matter can be difficult because many countries do not require reports for all police-caused deaths, such as violence orchestrated by off-duty police, deaths in police confinement or deaths that did not occur with the police’s intent.

Paul Hirschfield, the author of the study, director of the criminal justice program and an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, said that ideally, data about FPV should be available in the same way that data on other causes of mortality is, including data on diseases, suicide and civilian homicide.

He said data on other causes of mortality is widely available because global organizations such as the United Nations invest funds and knowledge to maintain those records. Even without such organizations, countries like the U.K. and Australia maintain national data collection systems, Hirschfield said.

In the U.S., there exists a large number of separate law enforcement units, which makes record-keeping for police data difficult, he said.

In 2022, approximately 18,000 law enforcement entities reported crime statistics to the FBI, but only 6,773 groups reported use-of-force statistics to the National Use-of-Force Data Collection program, Hirschfield said.

Although law enforcement’s participation in this program has increased to the point where the FBI can release information and statistics on the subject, the program is still not comprehensive, he said.

“Although this is a welcome development, the (National Use-of-Force Data Collection) program will still fail to provide the complete picture that we need for intra- and international comparative purposes and that the American people and their elected leaders demand and deserve,” Hirschfield said.

The study also discussed how FPV occurs as a result of the number of volatile police encounters and how both police and civilians respond to them. Police are taught to respond to threats with force that is proportional to their perception of the threat, viewpoints that can change depending on the person and context, according to the study.

An individual reaching into a concealed location, for example, can seem more threatening in areas where handguns are common, and organized demonstrations can seem more threatening in politically unstable areas, according to the study.

The study also mentions possible patterns in the U.S. that contribute to lethal policing such as gun homicides, which previous research suggests have a high correlation with FPV.

Hirschfield said the study puts forward the idea that a diverse range of countries that report high rates of gun violence also report high levels of fatal police violence.

Though, 2019-2020 data from Australia demonstrates that high FPV rates do not always correlate with high gun homicide rates, indicating that other reasons warrant consideration as causes of FPV as well, according to the study.

The study states that FPV can also stem from the mistreatment of minorities in a given area. Countries with relatively high FPV rates, such as the U.S., Venezuela, Brazil, France and Belgium, are also characterized by the mistreatment and division related to minority groups, according to the study.

Though, countries such as Spain and the U.K. do not follow such trends, meaning there may be more factors at play than inequity, according to the study.

The study also found that in some countries where there are more firearms or more mistreatment of minorities, law enforcement receives limited training.

Hirschfield said that there is currently no consensus on how police should be trained, with many individuals from different sides of the political spectrum believing that police should not take on the responsibilities of social workers, counselors or health care professionals.

He said officers still inevitably respond to situations concerning individuals with cognitive or mental health issues or who face homelessness.

“I have never heard anyone argue that police should not receive more training in mental health, neurodiversity and multicultural awareness, crisis intervention, conflict mediation, etc.,” Hirschfield said.

He said in order to cover these issues, police training needs to be extended past the current average of five and a quarter months of classroom instruction, and experts outside of law enforcement should be invited to teach them.

Hirschfield said that despite his emphasis on the importance of police training, he found through his research that Venezuelan police, one of the deadliest in the world, underwent training for double the time required of Spanish and British police, who rarely use deadly force.

In the U.S., he said that he wished more people understood that factors such as gun laws, weak social security practices, hyper-localism and systemic racism all need to be considered as causes for FPV.

In terms of designing policies from this research, Hirschfield said that his research supports two types of policy reforms: those that relate to gun violence reduction and those that call for modifications to police training and practices.

The former is based on the idea that reducing the amount of armed suspects police encounter will also reduce police shootings, he said. The latter targets enforcing greater regulations on how police behave during these encounters.

Hirschfield said that in the U.S., policing continues to be a prevalent issue, especially since police killing rates have not changed since 2014, when the country began undergoing waves of police reform.

“I can imagine many Rutgers students are frustrated and perplexed at the seeming intractability of this problem,” he said. “I think my research, which points to multiple, durable factors that distinguish the (U.S.) from other developed nations, explains both why the (U.S.) stands out and why the problem is so persistent.”