Police Use of Force Databases: Sources of Bias in Lethal Force Data Collection

Understanding police use of lethal force requires the collection of reliable data. Due to bias present in police-use-of-lethal-force databases, researchers typically triangulate using multiple data sources to compensate for this bias; however, triangulation is restricted when the bias present in each database is unknown. This study investigates three government-funded and three independent police-use-of-lethal-force databases to identify methodological sources of bias present in the major U.S. data-collection systems. Bias was coded based on nine categories, including misclassification bias, broad conceptualization, narrow conceptualization, overlap bias, coverage bias, voluntary response bias, observer bias, gatekeeping bias, and self-report response bias. Findings suggest that all six databases had at least three different types of methodological bias present. Generally, public, government-sponsored databases exhibit bias through data self-reporting by law enforcement and varying victim race determination methods. Private databases reveal bias through media-based reporting and the triangulation of data from multiple sources, which is further complicated by lack of transparency in the databases' design and administrative procedures. All six databases have a unique position to the State, which should also inform researcher data selection. I argue that selecting data sources that complement each other based on these identified biases will produce a more complete image of police-use-of-lethal-force and enhance finding accuracy in future research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Department dc:contributor.department

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Walkup, Christian Andrew

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Reichelmann, Ashley Veronica

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Rocha Beardall, Theresa
• Hawdon, James E.

• lethal force
• data triangulation
• bias
• police
• data collection
• legal intervention

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:30491

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/103615