Inequalities Regimes in Policing: Examining the Connection Between Social Exclusion and Order Maintenance Strategies

• Date: 01 July 2019
• Author: Amie M. Schuck,Cara Rabe-Hemp
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368716689491
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Inequalities Regimes in

Policing: Examining the

Connection Between

Social Exclusion and Order

Maintenance Strategies

Amie M. Schuck

1

and Cara Rabe-Hemp

2

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to evaluate how the intersection of race, class, and

gender within law enforcement influences the utilization of public safety strategies

grounded in the broken windows policing philosophy. Drawing from Acker’s

inequality regime framework, we hypothesize that greater workplace inequalities

produce institutionalized systems of social processes that increase the likelihood that

organizations will implement aggressive enforcement of order maintenance offenses

as a strategy for sustaining public safety. Using data collected from 1,218 U.S. police

departments, the results suggest that stronger inequality regimes are associated with

higher arrest rates for disorder offenses, marijuana possession, and liquor law viola-

tions. Further, the results suggest that stronger inequality regimes are related to

higher arrest rates for Black community members. As many law enforcement agencies

across the nation face a legitimacy crisis, prompted by concerns about how police

interact with people of color, the results from this study suggest that increasing

representation and reducing inequality in law enforcement should result in agencies

becoming less reliant on large-scale arrest-driven order maintenance strategies by

including more diverse perspectives in the decision-making process and developing

alternative models for maintaining public safety.

1

Department of Criminology, Law and Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

2

Criminal Justice Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Amie M. Schuck, Department of Criminology, Law and Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W.

Harrison Street MC141, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.

Email: amms@uic.edu

Race and Justice

2019, Vol. 9(3) 228-250

ªThe Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368716689491

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Keywords

Acker, aggressive policing, broken widows theory, class, community policing, gender,

inequality regimes, law enforcement, race, racialized policing

The 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, Eric Garner in Staten Island,

NY, and Laquan McDonald in Chicago, IL, exposed the estranged and tumultuous

relationship between many local law enforcement agencies and the communities the

agencies are sworn to serve, particularly neighborhoods with a large percentage of

young men of color. Research generally suggests that Black residents have more

negative attitudes toward the police (Durose & Langan, 2007; Rosenbaum, Schuck,

Costello, Hawkins, & Ring, 2005; Tuch & Weitzer, 1997; Weitzer, 1999, 2015) and

have more negative experiences with the police than White residents (Kochel, Wilson,

& Mastrofski, 2011; Stewart, Baumer, Brunson, & Simons, 2009; Zhao, Lai, Ren, &

Lawton, 2015). Many young people of color feel that law enforcement officials

unfairly target them and that they are treated in a disrespectful and unjust manner

during encounters with the police (Brunson, 2007; Brunson & Miller, 2006). Further,

many parents of color express fear and concern for their children when they interact

with individual officers (Berkel et al., 2009).

Scholars have suggested that increasing the diversity within the law enforcement

workforce and promoting more Black and female officers into leadership positions are

possible strategies for building justice-centered organizations that are more responsive

to the public (Schuck, 2014; Schuck & Rabe-Hemp, 2014; Silvestri, 2007; Weisburd,

Greenspan, Hamilton, Williams, & Bryant, 2000). In theory, the differential distri-

bution of power enables the selective use of social control to the advantage of

members of the dominant group and to the disadvantage of members of subordinate

groups (Blalock, 1967). Increasing equality and the representativeness of arbiters of

justice is a perspective not only discussed by scholars but also advocated by the public

and policy makers. For example, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing

(2015) recommended that the federal government create a law enforcement diversity

initiative in order “to create a workforce that contains a broad range of diversity

including race, gender, language, life experience, and cultural background to improve

understanding and effectiveness in dealing with all communities” (p. 16).

The purpose of this article is to evaluate whether the intersection of race, class, and

gender within law enforcement is associated with the utilization of public safety

strategies drawn from the broken windows policing philosophy. Although aggressive

enforcement of order maintenance offenses remains high, there is growing evidence

that these types of practices have a negative impact on people of color, undermine

neighborhood processes in minority communities, and reduce the overall legitimacy

of the law (Fagan & Davies, 2000; Meares, 2015). Drawing from Acker’s (2006)

inequality regimes framework, we hypothesize that greater workplace inequalities

produce institutionalized systems of social processes that increase the likelihood that

police organizations will utilize large-scale arrest-driven order maintenance strategies

and that these patterns of social relations will directly affect people of color.

Schuck and Rabe-Hemp 229