Police shootings, violent crime, race and socio-economic factors in municipalities in the United States of America

Background

Both police shootings and violent crime remain high in the United States of America compared to other developed nations but debates continue about whether race, mental health or other social factors are related to them.

Aims

Our aim was to test relationships between community factors indicative of socio-economic status, racial demographics, police shootings, and violent crime.

Methods

Data on police shootings, violent crime and community sociodemographic factors were drawn from two publicly accessible datasets: health and police records of 100 US municipalities and relationships between them explored using regression analyses.

Results

Data were from the 100 largest US municipalities as designated by the mapping police violence database. The median per capital violent crime rate was 5.94 and median killings by police per 10 thousand arrests was 13.7. Violent crime was found to be related mainly to income inequality and lower academic achievement in the community. Race was unrelated to violent crime after controlling for other factors. Police shootings were found to be related to community level mental health concerns, food insecurity and the municipality's violent crime rate.

Conclusion

The evidence suggests that socio-economic factors are the primary drivers of both violent crime perpetration and police shootings. Policy approaches aimed at improving education and reducing poverty are likely to mitigate both violent crime and police shootings. However, it is important to recognise that being Black is an indicator of particular disadvantage within this context. This underscores the need for comprehensive strategies that address the systemic issues of racial disparities and socio-economic inequality, while also acknowledging the complex interplay of race, poverty and policing in the context of violent crime and police shootings.