Online Program

A Study of Spatial Misalignment with an Application to Police Use of Force (308458)

Keywords: use of force, point process, spatial misalignment, criminology, crime

The relationship between police use of force and a range of potential explanatory factors has been widely studied in the field of criminology but with various conclusions. These factors include socioeconomic characteristics of communities, other point-level data such as violent crime, and individual characteristics of both the officer and citizen involved in the use of force incident. Some studies analyze use of force incidents while only controlling for socioeconomic and demographic factors while other studies control for features of the individuals involved and violent crime in the surrounding area. We create a framework for modeling areal unit covariates, such as these socioeconomic factors, and point processes, through addressing the problem of point-areal spatial misalignment. We combine several point processes in our analysis, including police use of force, officer-involved shootings, and violent crime incidents. Through this framework and data, we create novel contributions about police use of force while accounting for urban sociological processes.