The Political Dynamics of Justice Reform in The U.S.

Policing
Policing reform typically focuses on police brutality and the use of dangerous force
against minority individuals. Police brutality refers to the "use of excessive physical
force or verbal assault and psychological intimidation" by law enforcement against
individuals.
According to Mapping Police Violence, police killed 1,147 individuals in 2017. This
shows an increase from previous years with 963 individuals killed by fatal force in 2016
and 995 killed in 2015. The distribution of these killings varies widely by state with the
majority of incidences occurring in states such as California, Texas, Florida, and
Arizona and the least in Rhode Island, Vermont and North Dakota. While the distribution
of killings by state within the U.S. is not even, overall more individuals die due to police
shootings and other acts of excessive force than in any other Western, developed
nation. Additionally, there are racial disparities within statistics of police killings. Of the
1,147 individuals killed by the police in 2017, a quarter were Black, meaning Black
individuals were three times as likely to be killed by the police than their White
counterparts. 30% of the Black victims were unarmed, compared to 21% of White
Victims that were.
Police Brutality
Those in favor of criminal justice reform point to recurring examples of discriminatory
violence towards individuals such as the Watts Riots of 1965, the beating of Rodney
King in 1991, and the death of Amadou Diallo in the 1990s.
Theories from various fields including sociology and psychology have attempted to
explain the phenomena of police brutality. Sociological theories of brutality focus on the
way in which interactions between police and individuals are influenced by the status of
the individual. This means that differences race, gender, and socioeconomic status
result in disparate treatment by law enforcement. Additionally, “situational factors” such
as the character of the neighborhood also affect the interactions. Each of these factors
are cues that push officers to make judgements about how to proceed. So, according to
this theory minorities are overrepresented in police killings simply due to perceptions of
their race. Psychological theories of police brutality emphasizes that different outlooks
and personalities result in differing behavior by the police. This follows behavioral
psychology in suggesting that differences in gender, socioeconomic status, educational
and experiences affect one's responses. Organizational theory suggests that police
brutality is a result of the organizational structure of law enforcement. The use of
excessive force is seen as a response to disrespecting their authority.
In his book Punishing Race, Michael Tonry of University of Michigan, claims that White
individuals and groups typically excuse police brutality due to a deep seated prejudice
towards Blacks. Media representations of Black individuals and disparate sentencing
contribute to the idea that Black individuals are inherently more criminal. Research
reveals that Black males with features considered Afrocentric such as darker skin tone,
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