The Crisis of Social Institutions and Police Homicides: The Adverse Effects of Low Institutional Control

• Author: Kamali’ilani T. E. Wetherell,Terance D. Miethe
• Published date: 01 August 2022
• Date: 01 August 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10887679211018492
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10887679211018492

Homicide Studies

2022, Vol. 26(3) 269 –291

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DOI: 10.1177/10887679211018492

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Article

The Crisis of Social

Institutions and Police

Homicides: The Adverse

Effects of Low Institutional

Control

Kamali’ilani T. E. Wetherell1

and Terance D. Miethe1

Abstract

Using U.S. census data and a multi-source database on officer-involved killings, the

current study extends previous research by exploring the influence of measures of

weak social control in economic, educational, and familial institutions on state rates

of police homicide. States with lower levels of institutional control are found to have

higher overall rates of police homicides and police killings involving Black, Hispanic,

and White decedents. The significant effects of institutional control on these police

homicide rates are generally found to exhibit contextual invariance across different

levels of various control variables (e.g., comparisons of states with low or high violent

crime rates, low vs high economic inequality, low vs high levels of urbanization).

These results and the limitations of this study are discussed in terms of implications

for future research and public policy on police homicides and the role of social

institutions in minimizing the occurrence of these incidents.

Keywords

police homicide, institutional control, social control, police reform, Black Lives Matter

movement

Police killings of citizens has become a critical social issue in the United States in the

recent decade. An estimated 1,000 people are killed by police each year in the United

States (Sullivan et al., 2019) and the number of these police homicides1 has remained

1University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kamali’ilani T. E. Wetherell, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 South

Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5009, USA.

Email: wetherel@unlv.nevada.edu

1018492HSXXXX10.1177/10887679211018492Homicide StudiesWetherell and Miethe

research-article2021

270 Homicide Studies 26(3)

relatively consistent over the time span of 2015 to 2019 (Mapping Police Violence,

n.d.). Concern regarding a lack of accountability for officers who engage in these kill-

ings has sparked massive public protests under the Black Lives Matter movement and

calls for fundamental changes in policing policy and practices.

Previous empirical research has identified a number of situational factors and wider

socio-economic conditions associated with individual incidents and rates of police

homicide over place and time (Edwards et al., 2019; Fagan & Campbell, 2020; Klinger

et al., 2016). Based on various macro-sociological theories of crime, socio-economic

conditions in geographical areas (e.g., rates of poverty, income inequality, population

diversity, family disruption, school dropout) are linked to greater rates of police homi-

cides because they (1) erode the collective efficacy and regulatory functions of various

social institutions that control crime and (2) increase the danger of policing within

these environments.

The current study extends previous research by examining the relationship between

states’ measures of institutional control and their rates of police homicide. Census data

and a multi-source database on police homicides (mappingpoliceviolence.org) are

used to estimate both overall and separate models of police homicides involving

Black, Hispanic, and White decedents. The results of the analysis, their robustness

across measures, and the limitations of this study are discussed in terms of implica-

tions for future research and public policy on police homicides and the role of social

institutions in minimizing the occurrence of such incidents.

Literature Review

Previous research has identified multiple socio-economic conditions that are associ-

ated with rates of police homicides over different geographical units (e.g., neighbor-

hoods, cities, counties, states, nations). These ecological correlates are linked to

various theoretical perspectives about crime and social order. The major themes and

findings from this literature are summarized below.

Socio-Economic Correlates of Dangerous Places

Socio-economic conditions of geographical areas are important in understanding the

relative prevalence of police homicides within them. Particular social conditions (e.g.,

poverty, economic inequality, racial heterogeneity) are often associated with higher

violent crime rates which, in turn, may increase officers’ exposure to dangerous places

and persons (Hemenway et al., 2019). More direct measures of officers’ physical dan-

ger (e.g., rates of deaths of officers in the line of duty) have also been examined in

previous research on police killings (Chamlin, 1989; Fagan & Campbell, 2020; Gibbs

et al., 2014; Kaminski, 2003; Peterson & Bailey, 1988).

The link between violent crime rates and police homicides is captured by different

authors as the “community violence” perspective (Sorenson et al., 1993), the “reactive

hypothesis” (Jacobs & O’Brien, 1998), and the “danger-perception” theory (MacDonald

et al., 1999). MacDonald et al. (2001) find the strongest support for a revision of these