Case Study 2

Policing Violence and Violent Policing

Violent Crime

  • roughly 1.2 million commited each year

  • 366 per 100k inhabitant

  • 70% aggravated assaults

  • 20% robbery offences

(FBI data)

Arrest Data

  • 10 million arrests per year *3k arrests per 100k inhabitants)

  • 156 per 100k

Of Drug Possession

  • 20 % - heroin, cocaine

  • 30% - marijuana

  • 4% - synthetic/manufactured

  • 31% - non-narcotic

    • benzphetamine, ketamine, anabolic steroids

Scheduling

  • Schedule I Controlled Substances:

    • no accepted medical use, high potential for abuse

      • LSD, marijuana, ecstasy

  • Schedule II

    • high potential for abuse/high potential for addiction, less medicinal use

      • methane, oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl

  • Schedule III

    • less potential for abuse than ii, may lead to moderate physical dependence or high psych. dependence

      • Tylenol with Codeine, benzphetamine, ketamine

  • Schedule IV

    • low potential for abuse (relative to III)

      • xanax, klonpin, ativan

  • Schedule V

    • low potential for abuse

      • robitussin with codeine

Arrests (demo)

  • 73% are male

    • roughly 80 of violent

  • 70% are white

    • 27% are African American

“Criminality Myths”

  1. Criminality is an objective category of behavior

  2. violent criminals are the only recipients of policing violence. The use of force is episodic, an unavoidable byproduct of first responders in emergency situations

  3. citizens are uniformly held to one standard by the law, and citizens uniformly protected by it

  4. the threat os punishment reduces the incentive to commit crimes. Violence can be prevented by policing and the threat of incarceration