“Population benchmarks provide only a crude method for estimating disproportionality. They allow for an inference that force is being used in a manner that is disproportionate to presence in the general population, but do not allow for a clear inference as to whether the force is disproportionate to presence in any particular area or to legitimately provocative behavior. A more direct, albeit still limited, proxy for level of provocative behavior would be actual offending.”
- Goff et al. in Policing Equity (2016)
Link to the full paper by Goff et al.
And the study still gives into Black racial disparity in use of force narrative. Even after showing that when accounting for all arrests the gap closes from 3.8 x as likely as whites to 1.3 x. And then for violent crime rates the trend reverses and whites are more likely to experience use of force. SMH. Gotta keep that funding though.
But I think they nailed it with this gem. "might racial disparities in the tendency to resist, flee, or disrespect officers be implicated in the observed differences? Might cultural mismatches and/or officers’ perceptions of cooperation be influenced by residents’ race? There is some suggestive evidence that there are racial disparities in resistance based on research by Smith and colleagues for the National Institute of Justice. They find that the rate of officer injury is lower when arresting a White suspect than a suspect of another racial group (Smith et al., 2009)." A HUGE segment of black culture GLORIFIES the Fuck the Police mantra! Example: See Rap
Here is another good study about police shootings showing no racial bias when violent crime rates are accounted for. https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2019/the-truth-behind-racial-disparities-in-fatal-police-shootings/ Link to the source study in the article.
The socio-cultural differences perspective is fascinating and important to account for on a scientific level. Yet, liberals would probably say it is racist to even consider that.
The Johnson et al. study linked in the article was one of the more unbiased studies I've seen in the field. It's scary that it was met with so much criticism from people who seemed eager to force read a black victomhood narrative.