Chalfin Aaron, Hansen Benjamin, Weisburst Emily K, Williams Morgan C
Department of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania.
Department of Economics, University of Oregon, NBER, IZA.
Am Econ Rev Insights. 2022 Jun;4(2):139-158. doi: 10.1257/aeri.20200792.
We report novel empirical estimates of the race-specific effects of larger police forces in the United States. Each additional police officer abates approximately 0.1 homicides. In per capita terms, effects are twice as large for Black versus White victims. Larger police forces also make fewer arrests for serious crimes, with larger reductions for crimes with Black suspects, implying that police force growth does not increase racial disparities among the most serious charges. At the same time, larger police forces make more arrests for low-level "quality-of-life" offenses, with effects that imply a disproportionate impact for Black Americans.
我们报告了美国警力规模扩大对不同种族影响的新实证估计。每增加一名警察，凶杀案数量大约减少0.1起。按人均计算，黑人受害者所受影响是白人受害者的两倍。警力规模扩大还会使严重犯罪的逮捕数量减少，对黑人嫌疑人犯罪的减少幅度更大，这意味着警力增长并不会加剧最严重指控中的种族差异。与此同时，警力规模扩大导致对低级别“生活质量”犯罪的逮捕数量增加，其影响表明对美国黑人的影响不成比例。
