Why Police Kill Black Males with Impunity: Applying Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) to Address the Determinants of Policing Behaviors and “Justifiable” Homicides in the USA
Top Cited Papers
- 10 December 2015
- journal article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Journal of Urban Health
- Vol. 93 (S1), 122-140
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-015-0005-x
Abstract
Widespread awareness of the recent deaths of several black males at the hands of police has revealed an unaddressed public health challenge—determining the root causes of excessive use of force by police applied to black males that may result in “justifiable homicides.” The criminalization of black males has a long history in the USA, which has resulted in an increase in policing behaviors by legal authorities and created inequitable life chances for black males. Currently, the discipline of public health has not applied an intersectional approach that investigates the intersection of race and gender to understanding police behaviors that lead to “justifiable homicides” for black males. This article applies the core tenets and processes of Public Health Critical Race Praxis (PHCRP) to develop a framework that can improve research and interventions to address the disparities observed in recent trend analyses of “justifiable homicides.” Accordingly, we use PHCRP to offer an alternative framework on the social, legal, and health implications of violence-related incidents. We aim to move the literature in this area forward to help scholars, policymakers, and activists build the capacity of communities to address the excessive use of force by police to reduce mortality rates from “justifiable homicides.”Keywords
Funding Information
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (New Connections)
This publication has 40 references indexed in Scilit:
- Racial Bias in Perceptions of Others’ PainPLOS ONE, 2012
- STRUCTURAL RACISM AND HEALTH INEQUITIESDu Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 2011
- The Urban Context: A Place to Eliminate Health Disparities and Build Organizational CapacityJournal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, 2010
- The public health critical race methodology: Praxis for antiracism researchSocial Science & Medicine, 2010
- Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism PraxisAmerican Journal of Public Health, 2010
- Cinethetic Racism: White Redemption and Black Stereotypes in "Magical Negro" FilmsSocial Problems, 2009
- Attending to threat: Race-based patterns of selective attentionJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2008
- Reducing Prostate Cancer Morbidity and Mortality in African American Men: Issues and ChallengesClinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 2007
- Event-related potentials and the decision to shoot: The role of threat perception and cognitive controlJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2005
- John Henryism and blood pressure differences among black menJournal of Behavioral Medicine, 1983