Workshop: Qualitative Research Workshop 8360

Week 1

Police Brutality against African American Males

            The recent widely publicized tragic deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police has generated a public debate about racism in policing. A lot of research has been conducted to identify and understand the perception of the African Americans about the police and the consequences of racial inequalities on policing (Brunson, 2017). Unfortunately limited research has been conducted to investigate the institutional and personal influences of non-African Americans police officers on how they treat African Americans. Furthermore, more research has to be done to understand the history of policing, to identify if there are practices within the force that motivate officers to engage in unethical behavior against racial minorities (Brunson, 2017). The aim of this research paper is to investigate the literature gaps on the effects of perceptions non-African American officers have on how they deal with African American arrests.

            To obtain accurate and honest information from the police force, the data collection methods would involve questionnaires and surveys where the respondents would not have to reveal their identities (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). The research questions include, what indicates that an African American male is a criminal? When moving to make an arrest, do you follow the correct procedure for arrests or do you let your emotions guide you?

            The main challenges faced when developing a research problem was that there is a common knowledge that racism and criminalizing African Americans was the main reason behind police brutality and therefore, there is a high possibility that most of the police officers would cite this as the main reason (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). The research aims at uncovering the emotions and behavioral changes that occur when police officers arrest and convict African American males. The research results would then be connected to the results on the history of policing to identify patterns.

References

Brunson, R. K. (2017). “Police don't like black people”: African‐American young men's accumulated police experiences. Criminology & public policy, 6(1), 71-101.

Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. V. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505.

Week2

Police Brutality against African American Males

            The recent widely publicized tragic deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police has generated a public debate about racism in policing. A lot of research has been conducted to identify and understand the perception of the African Americans about the police and the consequences of racial inequalities on policing (Brunson, 2017). Unfortunately, limited research has been conducted to investigate the institutional and personal influences of non-African Americans police officers on how they treat African Americans. Furthermore, more research has to be done to understand the history of policing, to identify if there are practices within the force that motivate officers to engage in unethical behavior against racial minorities (Brunson, 2017). The aim of this research paper is to investigate the literature gaps on the effects of perceptions non-African American officers have on how they deal with African American arrests. The main research problem is the identification of factors that make African American males targets of police brutality. The purpose of this research is to identify and to attempt to identify the factors motivating the police to be brutal and violent against African American males. While the perception of racial minorities towards the police remain to be that of untrustworthy and bias force, this research would also attempt to determine the perceptions that the police have towards African American males, and why their arrest is different from that of normal white people.

            To obtain accurate and honest information from the police force, the data collection methods would involve questionnaires and surveys where the respondents would not have to reveal their identities (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). The research questions include, what indicates that an African American male is a criminal? When moving to make an arrest, do you follow the correct procedure for arrests, or do you let your emotions guide you? The data collection methodology would still stand to gain trust of the police and gather correct information on their perception of African American males.

            The main challenges faced when developing a research problem was that there is a common knowledge that racism and criminalizing African Americans was the main reason behind police brutality and therefore, there is a high possibility that most of the police officers would cite this as the main reason (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). The research aims at uncovering the emotions and behavioral changes that occur when police officers arrest and convict African American males. The research results would then be connected to the results on the history of policing to identify patterns.

References

Brunson, R. K. (2017). “Police don't like black people”: African‐American young men's accumulated police experiences. Criminology & public policy, 6(1), 71-101.

Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. V. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505.

Week 3

olice Brutality against African American Males

Research Problem

            The recent widely publicized tragic deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police has created a public discussion about racism in policing. A lot of research has been piloted to identify and understand the perception of the African Americans about the police and the consequences of racial inequalities on policing (Brunson, 2017). Unfortunately, limited research has been conducted to investigate the institutional and personal influences of non-African Americans police officers on how they treat African Americans (Brunson, 2017). Furthermore, more research has to be done to understand the history of policing, to identify if there are practices within the force that motivate officers to engage in unethical behavior against racial minorities

            The widespread awareness created due to the latest deaths of numerous African American males in the hands of the police has uncovered the unaddressed public concern which is defining the root reasons of extreme use of force by the police directed towards black males resulting in ‘admissible homicides’ (Gilbert & Ray, 2016). The criminalization of black males has been a prevalent issue in the history of the United States. Currently, there are limited researches that apply an intersectional approach towards the investigation of the intersection of gender and race in realizing police behaviors that lead to ‘admissible homicides’ for African American males (Gilbert & Ray, 2016). Researches need to be done about the implications of social and legal factors in violence related incidents involving law enforcement officials and African American males.

Statement of Purpose

The aim of this research paper is to investigate the literature gaps on the effects of perceptions non-African American officers have on how they deal with African American arrests. The main research problem is the identification of factors that make African American males targets of police brutality. The drive of this research is to pinpoint and to attempt to identify the factors motivating the police to be brutal and violent against African American males. While the perception of racial minorities towards the police remain to be that of untrustworthy and bias force, this research would also attempt to determine the perceptions that the police have towards African American males, and why their arrest is different from that of normal white people.

The number of violent bereavements due to legal involvement is rapidly increasing globally and especially in the United States. Death by legal action, which is defined as the kicking of an individual by a law enforcement official with explicit legal power to use deadly force while acting in the law of duty, with exception of lawful executions (Gilbert & Ray, 2016). According to the Surveillance for Violent Deaths National Violent Death Reporting System, data points to the fact that death by lawful involvement is ranked third of the leading causes of violence associated deaths in the United States (Gilbert & Ray, 2016). The data states that 24.4% of the violent related deaths are accounted for by force due to legal intervention by law enforcement officials. Recent studies have evidenced that African American males are 21 times more likely to be murdered by a law enforcement officer than white males. By examining this trends in violence related deaths due to lawful involvement, it is important that researches be conducted to determine why there are such huge disparities in how different people belonging to different ethnic, racial, and gender groups are treated by local law enforcement officials.

Comments

            To obtain accurate and honest information from the police force, the data collection methods would involve questionnaires and surveys where the respondents would not have to reveal their identities (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). The research questions include, what indicates that an African American male is a criminal? When moving to make an arrest, do you follow the correct procedure for arrests, or do you let your emotions guide you? The data collection methodology would still stand to gain trust of the police and gather correct information on their perception of African American males.

            The main challenges faced when developing a research problem was that there is a common knowledge that racism and criminalizing African Americans was the main reason behind police brutality and therefore, there is a high possibility that most of the police officers would cite this as the main reason (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). The research aims at uncovering the emotions and behavioral changes that occur when police officers arrest and convict African American males. The research results would then be connected to the results on the history of policing to identify patterns.

References

Brunson, R. K. (2017). “Police don't like black people”: African‐American young men's accumulated police experiences. Criminology & public policy, 6(1), 71-101.

Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. V. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505.

Gilbert, K. L., & Ray, R. (2016). 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. Journal of Urban Health, 93(1), 122-140.

Week 4

Factors Behind Police Brutality Against African American Males

Qualitative Narrative Approach Research Questions

1. What are some of the challenges African American males face at the hands of law enforcement officials?

2. What are some of the factors motivating police to use extreme force towards African American males?

3. Do African American males feel safe at the hands of law enforcement officials?

Phenomenology Qualitative Research Questions

1. What percentage of African American males have been arrested by the police within their lifetime and the frequency of the arrests?

2. What percentage of African Americans have faced violence at the hands of law enforcement officials within their lifetime and the frequency of the violence?

Why Use Narrative Approach

            The narrative approach would be used because it is recursive and involves the collection of first-hand information from individuals who have experienced the phenomenon being studied. The narrative approach deals with the study of experiences (Wertz, 2011). It would be ideal to use the narrative approach to study the factors behind why police officers use extreme force towards unarmed African American males because the population under study would be able to narrate their experiences in the hands of law enforcement officials.

Why Use Phenomenology Approach

            Phenomenology focuses on studying the lived experiences of an individual within the world (Wertz, 2011). Phenomenology is an appropriate method to study why certain events such as police brutality towards African Americans happen.

Approach Selected

            The Marxist theoretical framework was selected because it seeks to provide an understanding of the impact of economy in alienation and communism. This is an appropriate framework for this research because one of the factors driving excessive use of force by law enforcement officials towards African American males is poor economic backgrounds which motivated the criminalization of African American individuals by law enforcement officials (Dukes & Kahn, 2017).

Data Collection Tools

            The data collection tools used for this case are surveys, questionnaires, and interviews.

References

Dukes, K. N., & Kahn, K. B. (2017). What social science research says about police violence against racial and ethnic minorities: Understanding the antecedents and consequences—An introduction. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 690-700.

Wertz, F. J. (2011). Five ways of doing qualitative analysis: Phenomenological psychology, grounded theory, discourse analysis, narrative research, and intuitive inquiry. Guilford Press.

Week 5

COLLAPSE

Top of Form

Interviewing

The current version of the research question is what are the factors that make African American males targets of police brutality at disproportionate rates? The choice of data collection method is interviewing and both closed ended and open ended questions would be involved. Interviewing is the selected data collection method because it helps in explaining and exploring the opinions of the respondents, while capturing their experiences and behaviors. Open ended questions allow in-depth information to be collected while closed ended questions allows for more precise information to be collected (Schober, 2018). Interviewing is the best data collection method as compared to the others since it involves two way communication between the researcher and the respondent, helping the researcher to understand people’s experiences better, which is important in collecting accurate and precise information about a phenomenon.

The types of questions that a responded would be asked include, have you or someone you know been a victim of police brutality? What, in your own perception, led you to become a victim of police brutality? Do you think that your ethnicity or race could have been an attributing factor towards you being a victim of police violence? What is your perception of the police? Do you believe that the police are fair in their dealings?

The above interview questions are considered personal and embarrassing since no adult male would love to confess that they have been victims of violence due to fear of stigmatization. Men tend feel embarrassed when they become victims of violence and they fear some would term them as ‘weak’. The questions may put them at risk since the information might be used against them by rogue police officers who may not want someone talking about their experience at their hands (Bryant‐Davis et al., 2017). The main ethical consideration in the interviewing process is privacy and confidentiality. Since the narrative experiences of the victims of police brutality would involve information such as experience with illegal drugs or criminal activities, it would be important to withhold their identities.

References

Bryant‐Davis, T., Adams, T., Alejandre, A., & Gray, A. A. (2017). The trauma lens of police violence against racial and ethnic minorities. Journal of Social Issues, 73(4), 852-871.

Schober, M. F. (2018). The future of face-to-face interviewing. Quality Assurance in Education.

Bottom of Form

Week 6

Interview Guide

Victims Interview Guide

1. To begin this interview, how would you define police brutality and what is your take on the same issue in the United States?

2. What are the main circumstances surrounding the issue of police brutality? What is your perception of the motivating factor behind police brutality?

3. This interview being about sharing experiences with police violence and brutality, could your share with us your experience on the same?

4. What would you say motivated the issue to escalate to the point where it became violent?

5. Did you think about reporting the police officers involved to their seniors from their respective police departments?

6. What were the measures taken by the police department after you reported the incident? Did the police officers receive any reprimand, suspension, or did the department just brush of the issue?

7. Did you suffer any emotional or physical torture after the ordeal?

8. Do you think that the state and federal governments and the criminal justice system care about the racial minority groups (Moore et al., 2018)? Do you think it is enough what they are doing about the issue of African American males being victims of police brutality at disproportionate rates?

9. What would you like to add about the entire issue?

Police Interview Guide

1. I am concerned about the safety of America’s African American male population who have become disproportionate targets of police brutality. What are the protocols, if any, have been put in place to ensure that this kind of egregious police brutality does not occur?

2. What type of racial sensitivity training do you as a police officer have to undergo before beginning active service? Is this mandatory for all officers?

3. Does any type of racial sensitivity training spur feelings of resentment? Do the police officers believe that racial sensitivity training is necessary and how does the attitude get reflected throughout the police department?

4. At what rates does the police department you are currently working under punish police officers who use racial slurs or engage in activities that indicate racial bias?

5. Do police officers at your department send emails containing race related memes or jokes (Deterding & Waters, 2018)? Are these kind of jokes and behaviors laughed off or are they treated as indications of deeper systemic issues?

6. What percentage of officers on patrol in your department are actually from the neighborhoods they patrol? How many African American police officers are there on the force?

7. Has any effort been made to ensure that patrol troops have at least one person of color aboard when patrolling neighborhoods that are predominantly being inhabited by people of color?

8. How often do you as police officers get mental health checkups?

9. Have you undergone trainings about how to look for signs of agitation and stress? Does the senior police officers recognize stress and agitation as serious issues?

10. How does your police department deal with reported cases of police brutality by one of the department’s police officer?

11. What would you like to add about the issue?

References

Deterding, N. M., & Waters, M. C. (2018). Flexible coding of in-depth interviews: A twenty-first-century approach. Sociological methods & research, 0049124118799377.

Moore, S. E., Robinson, M. A., Clayton, D. M., Adedoyin, A. C., Boamah, D. A., Kyere, E., & Harmon, D. K. (2018). A critical race perspective of police shooting of unarmed black males in the United States: Implications for social work. Urban Social Work, 2(1), 33-47.