Law Enforcement Thesis

My thesis is that law enforcement and their response to crimes and its perpetrators are coloured by race. I do not believe that this is a response of law enforcement officers being racist. Rather, I believe that the environment in which the officers work and how their training is conducted influence their decision making in high stress situations. The two articles in this reaction paper directly relate to the current thesis. Specifically in regards to shooting decisions of law enforcement based on race. In the first article, Correll, Park, Judd, Wittenbrink, Sadler, & Keesee (2007) explore the influences of racial bias in the decision to shoot. They concluded that in trained police officers there was racial bias (2007, p. 1015). The researchers noticed racial bias when a Black male without a gun and a White male with a gun were presented. There officers took longer to respond in the shooting decisions where these
The first article explains police officers, with good training, do not alter their shooting decisions based on race. There is bias when there are white are black people that do not follow stereotypes. For example, a unarmed black male and an armed white male. It was also noted that those without training at all were more likely to have their shooting decisions influenced by race. The second article found that depending on their training, law enforcement are able to check themselves and control their biases. However, it is important to note that all of the studies that take place in these papers rely on strictly laboratory settings. Law enforcement officers may take different actions with their bias in high stress situations. The second article suggest that cognitive load and how law enforcement analyze task-relevant information explains whether or not they control biases in decisions. In high stress situations it could be the case that there is more load over all which could hinder decision