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Sociological Theories On Police Brutality

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Sociological Theories On Police Brutality
As sociologist suggests there are is still no clear explanation on police misconduct, however, there are some sociological theories that many scholars believe can lead to police brutality. Have listed some theories, I believe that allows us to take a deeper look into police brutality. Conflict theory, predicts that members of minority groups are more likely to be victims of police brutality(Starr 2015) thus allowing the widening of the black community distrust of the police department.. Let's take a deeper look into the, suggestions of conflict theory by analyzing data. As noted in “Community policing is not the solution to police brutality. It makes it worse,” written by Starr, “ we examine the general population to consider the relative …show more content…
We can take into consideration the Laissez Faire racism theory. Involves persistent negative stereotyping of African Americans, tendency to blame blacks themselves for their shortcomings(Bobo 2011). We can see Laissez Faire racism theory played out in the media. Heightened by the sense of blacks being criminals. As noted in “What's going on ? Rising tide of police brutality,” “The scapegoating of Black and Brown people as criminals, and the low regard with which society places these lives, allows police brutality to take place.” Moreover, the framing as African Americans as criminals, can serve as a net for police officers to use as the reasons why excessive force was necessary. The police department, blames the victims for the officers having to use excessive force. The framing of the victim as criminal nonetheless, has been the narrative of many police involved shootings. We find a study conducted by Plant & Peruche (2005) which provided information into why some police officers within the department view black males in particular as criminals. As described by Chaney and Robertson(2013) in the article “ Racism and Police Brutality in America”, “Black males in particular, are caricatured as aggressive and criminal, police are more likely to view black men as a threat which justifies the disproportionate use of deadly force.” The framing of blacks as criminal black …show more content…
We must converse the theory of institutional racism. As described by Gallagher in “Rethinking the Color Line,” Institutional racism is a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions.” This theory also frames the disparities within our criminal justice system, thus allowing us to gather information as to why police brutality in seeing more prominent within the African American

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