Thesis Assignment

- you have added few articles for the literature but adding more will provide credibility to your project. 

- the result section is unclear. 

Senior Level Thesis 2 (CRIM 4504)

Topic- Student's perception towards Police Brutality among black People

Table of Contents

Introduction.............................................................................

Purpose of the Study.......................................................................

Hypothesis ........................................................................................

Variables and Operational Definition.................................................

Theoretical Model and Theoretical Framework……………………………..

Literature Review…………………………………….

Methodological Approach..................................................

Theoretical Model and Framework……………………….

Analysis of Study Results………………………

Statistics………………………

Conclusion………………………………...

References……………………………….

Introduction

Police brutality has always been defined as a form of civil rights violation where law enforcement officers take advantage of ordinary people by exercising excessive force against the people (Nelson, 2001). The Guardian's research reported that police brutality skyrocketed by 312% between the years 2011 to the year 2012 when compared to the previous years. Out of these numbers, only 1 out of 100 cases got a conviction. The insular culture demonstrated in the police departments and the aggressive nature of police officers explain police brutality.

Statistics from the CBC database in 2018, it was revealed that 18 black men and black boys were among the 52 fatalities killed in encounters with the police in Toronto as they protested between 2000 and 2017 (Marcoux & Nicholson, 2020). This reveals the brutality that occurs in police in the police force. It is said that when compared to whites, the police find it easier to shoot black people, therefore leading to vast events of discrimination against this race. Therefore, police brutality has adverse effects on the Black Population. However, there are disparities in the perception of individuals in this police brutality and their effects on black people. The students surveyed have varying attitudes concerning these events such that some claims that it had no significant effects on the society while others claim that it should be brought to an end as it portrays inequality in the Canadian society.

Police brutality has many effects on the black community; one of the most common effects is creating fear in black people. A large majority of the blacks have been incarcerated at some point; many have told scary stories on their experiences on how they were arrested and what they went through while in confinement (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). It is quite a sad situation for young people growing in North America. Instead of looking up to the police for protection and safety, they fear them (Angus & Crichlow, 2018).

Many people have ended up losing their lives through police brutality (Smith & Holmes, 2014). It is heartbreaking to see all the young people that would have otherwise lived long and made a legacy ending up losing their lives in the hands of rogue police officers for very petty offences. The most recent case of George Floyd, who police officers killed despite him being on his knees and asking the police to let him be, has hit the headlines worldwide (Moore, 2020). The police force in every country is expected to be ambassadors of equality in society; they are supposed to portray equal protection and service to all citizens

Purpose of the Study

This quantitative study's primary purpose is to understand students' perceptions of police brutality among black people. Police brutality has increased racism and discrimination. The Black community feels like it is being targeted for brutality. This has led to increased hatred between the different races where one feels superior to the other. As a result, this has led to stagnation in economic growth as people cannot work together as a team, thus hindering great minds from taking part in the nation's growth.

We would be exploring and analyzing the effect of police brutality and the actions taken to solve this issue. The research findings will focus on Students' overall attitudes towards police brutality where excessive force has been used, which would be a civil rights violation, within the Canadian Justice System; Multiple theories will explain this. By studying these effects, there will be suggestions from the case studies involved and surveys distributed, which will help suggest possible ways of solving this problem. Information from the various articles will support the need for activism towards eradicating these police brutalities.

Hypothesis

Hypothesis I: Canadian police are held responsible for their misconduct against minority groups. (this is not a hypothesis)

Hypothesis II: Black people are more likely to face police brutality than white people and other minority races.

In 2016, 27% of those detained in the United States were black Americans—double their portion of the overall population. Black teenagers make up 15percent of the total of all U.S. children but are blamed for 35% of youth arrests that year. Initially, a correlation between crime and race may seem primarily a feature of disproportionate urban poverty that is far more prevalent to Black Americans than other racial minorities. This reflects a large proportion of the enhanced risk of African Americans performing such property and violent offences. Yet white Americans overrate the percentage of Latin and blacks' violence, ignore the reality that coloured groups are overwhelmingly victims of violence, and discount the existence of racism in criminal enforcement.

As of 2018, black Americans were incarcerated at a rate of 3.2 times compared to whites non-Hispanics, as shown in the figure above. Research also shows that black American drivers have been stopped much more than whites non-Hispanics but have been detained and searched even more likely in recent times. The reasons and consequences of these stops vary due to ethnicity, and tremendous ethnic gaps in police stoppage rates exist in some states, calling out uncontrolled racial discrimination, deliberately or not, at the mercy of the cop. An in-depth analysis of the causes of traffic arrests indicates that the officers are more inclined to stop searching Hispanic and black vehicles for discretionary purposes, for 'investigative stops.

The above figure shows that a high proportion of black youths (35%) are arrested despite 15% of the total United States population. The white youths comprise 72 % of the overall population, yet the proportion arrested 62%, which is lower than their overall percentage.

Variables and Operational Definition

An operational definition is a statement that specifies the procedures used to measure a variable. With the definitions outlined, we can measure our project. In this study, the variables to be tested are the effects of police brutality on minority groups and student attitude towards it, (paraphrase - it is a confusing research question)  the dependent variable is college students' perception of racism and the independent variable police brutality (the independent variables are ethnicities, gender and more) 

. In this research, police brutality is regarded as the act of perpetrating some awful actions of savage physical violence or great cruelty on some groups of citizens who are the blacks in this case. As the police perform their duties of maintaining order in the country, they consider race a determinant factor and subject the blacks to more adverse effects than whites. The study will be conducted using articles that portray police brutality incidents on these minorities and their effects and strategies to solve this prevailing issue. ( It would be best if you mentioned how you would measure the variable? or what are the main attributes will be included in the definition)

For this research, we will measure the attitudes of students using a likert scale by means of questions in relation to the proposed topic.

Literature Review

The CBC research on deaths recorded in Canada due to police brutality between 2000 and 2017 shows the extent to which black and indigenous races were severely overrepresented in the fatalities registered in these events (Marcoux & Nicholson, 2020). Toronto illustrates an example of the intensity of such effects whereby blacks represent 37% of these fatalities' victims, hence showing that Blacks are more affected by these events than the whites. Ontario Human Rights Commission also argues that more blacks are 20 times more likely to be to be shot by police than white residents in the city. Therefore, portraying the extent of effects faced by the blacks following the police brutality.

The U.N. Human Rights Council also imposed condemnation on black people's police violence, hence proving that the act causes concerns to the entire society. This argument arose particularly following the suffocation of George Floyd on May 25th (Kenny, 2020). The UNHRC purported to come up with a resolution that strongly condemns the continuing systematic racially discriminatory and violent events by police, not only in America's united states, to be associated with human rights violations, which undermines the worth of black descent (Schwartz, 2020). Therefore, police brutality makes the blacks look like they are not worthy in society hence eliciting the extent of impacts the police brutality imposes on the blacks. Therefore, there has been a lot of advocacy by activists claiming that blacks should be rescued from such discriminatory acts.

Despite the rates of black fatalities in Canada following police brutality, the rate of arrests of incarceration of these races is still high compared to whites. Blacks and indigenous people are usually arrested over petty issues and even false allegations, leading to the prevailing overrepresentation in the justice system (WILLIAMS, 2020). White supremacy in the police force is a weapon of mass incarceration for non-whites, who are the minorities in the country. Ideally, indigenous people cover only 4.1% of the Canadian population. However, they represent one-third of provisional and federal correctional service admission, hence proving the extent to which they are subjected to adverse effects (Stelkia, 2020). They are mostly stereotyped to be related to criminals, causing distrust of minorities in the entire country.

Police brutality is considered a serious problem that undermined the psyche of civilians as human beings. This issue concerned the unnecessary use of force by a law enforcement person involving assessment and intervention. The U.S. has a tradition of police violence that affects mainly blacks. Traditionally, both the Black and the Latinx groups had law enforcement difficulties, culminating in generational trauma. These date back to slavery and felt in the culture among Black Americans. The kind of contact matters for the racial colour; for example, when the whites are addressed, it is viewed with more caution and abuse and aggression (Godley, 2018). The black citizens they threatened may be implicated in a breach of the statute. Research carried out by many groups showed that Black people are viewed less equally by military security powers relative to white people.

Police officers are not always held accountable for police misconduct in many situations in America; this has caused demonstrations and BLM campaigns in recent years. The BLM (Black Lives Matter) included black and white protests seeking revenge against George Floyd, a black man assassinated by officers (Capelli, 2020). The campaign began, and creamy colours stayed tinted on the highways, and all the leaders of the world supported the United States to uphold justice and human rights. As consensus develops around the presence of systemic racism in the U.S. police forces and other facets of American life, advocates of the Black Lives Matter movement are trying to extend their influence beyond the popularization of a word. Activists feel a chance once in a lifetime to pursue systemic changes that once felt far-reaching, including strong increases in police funding for social care and more insight for cops murdering people.

(1-2 pages more of literature review needed, that would help you build your operational definitions)

Theoretical Model and Framework

The Theoretical Model and Framework that is being used is called the Ferguson effect that refers to the increase in violent crime rates in a community caused by reduced proactive policing due to the community's distrust and hostility towards police (Lind, Dara. 2016). The Ferguson effect that has received the most attention is the notion that officers are pulling back on enforcement and proactive policing, fueling a crime increase (Maciag, 2016).

The Ferguson effect indicates that law enforcement officers are mindful of their occupation's unfavourable media attention, recognizing that the press will record their actions, leaving them unable to do their duty to deter allegations of unnecessary force or ethnic discrimination. Since the murders in the U. S. in the past two decades, there have been indicators of a new wave (Mac Donald, 2015). It's a contentious idea that police authorities around the United States have been less involved in public security initiatives, particularly in big cities, following the deadly shooting incident of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014. In 2015, murders in most populated areas in America, including Milwaukee, rose (25 per cent), Washington, D.C (54%), Baltimore (63%), Houston (23%), New York City (5%), Philadelphia (12%) and Los Angeles (10%). The increase in crime rates in major U.S. cities has led others to attribute the Ferguson effect. The correlation between rising killings and the Ferguson effect has put neighbourhood interaction and police involvement at the centre of debates on public policies, as in the early 1990s after Rodney King was beaten. (is this part of the literature? What is the theory or the theoretical framework used in the study)

Methodological Approach

The methodological approach that were used to conduct this research is the Quantitative research method that will allow us to collect and analyze existing data and survey questions that would be asked from the students about their perceptions of police brutality. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey were made using survey monkey and then distributed via Blackboard which were available to all students in the criminal justice field where their information are kept confidential.

The study involved 102 participants who were provided with 28 questions. The questionnaire only required ten to fifteen minutes to complete. The questions were designed to find out different student's opinions about police brutality in Canada. Likert scale was the methodological instrument used to measure how various people felt about police brutality. The SPSS program was used by informative statistics and exploratory data collection, presented as a result of statistical analysis. (provide information about the survey and the scale used in the study, this is your opportunity to explain the scale and how it was structured)

Analysis of study results

The survey included basic questions like respondents' gender, age, where they live, and whether they are familiar with police brutality. It also collected information about the respondent's racial background, White or Caucasian, black or African, Hispanic or Latino, Asian or Asian American, and many more. The survey also included questions such as if the respondents believe there is the existence of police brutality in Canada, how often the respondents see police in their neighborhood, the level at which they trust the police on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest and one being the least. It also involved how people feel when interacting with the police, whether the police have ever stopped the respondents. The general sample size was 50 males, 51 females, and one other (this should be in the methodology section)

Answering the hypothesis

Testing hypothesis 1 Canadian police are held responsible for their misconduct against minority groups., (paraphrase your hypothesis such as “students are more likely to believe that Canadian police-------------”  and also provide some description for the major variables first and then answer the hypotheses. such as age, the overall perception, division of the sample based on ethnicity.) respondents were asked their level of agreement on whether police are held accountable for their actions against minority groups (question 21). A hundred and one study participants responded to the question, and 7.92% strongly agreed, 28.71% agreed, 25.74% neither agreed nor disagreed, 27.72% disagreed, while 9.90% strongly disagreed. The data above 38 participants disagreed while 37 participants agreed while 26 of them neither agreed nor disagreed. It can be concluded that there is a high chance that police are not held responsible for their actions against minority groups. (put a title for your tables)

Testing hypothesis 2 Black people(minority group) are more likely to face police brutality than white people and other minority races. Participants were asked where racism contributes to police brutality and those who strongly agreed and agreed were 80 of the 101 respondents; five disagreed or strongly disagreed (question 20).

Group statistics

On average based on the likert scale testing both hypothesis there is a big difference between those who agree (24.75+33.165 = 57.915) and disagree (15.345 + 5.94 = 21.285) as shown in the figure above.

Descriptive statistics

Conclusion

The research shows that police brutality is a prevailing issue that portrays systematic racism on how black people are treated over whites. Police usually favour the whites and disregard the blacks as fewer worthy individuals in society. Since the study variables are police brutality and its effects on the minority groups, articles engaged in the study elicited the series of oppression and the resulting consequences from these events. The rate of fatalities following shootings on unarmed protectors is alarming. They represent a larger number of deaths, hence showing the effects of such brutalities on black lives. It is also evident that incarcerations of blacks to portray police violence is high; they are usually arrested over petty issues compared to other races. Ideally, the blacks occupy a smaller population of Canada, but the number of fatalities, incarcerations, among other discrimination, is far much higher. Laws must be formulated to restrict the police departments from having racial considerations as they serve the citizens (Cecco, 2020).

References

Alang, S., McAlpine, D., McCreedy, E., & Hardeman, R. (2017). Police brutality and black health: Setting the agenda for public health scholars. American journal of public health, 107(5), 662-665.