User:V.a.PJHC/sandbox

Research
Crime

Negative Publicity of Police
 * In September of 2016, professors from Arizona State University, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and University of Louisville published a study on the change in number of violent assaults and murders of U.S. police officers due to the increase in anti-police sentiment following the events in Ferguson, Missouri. Reporters claimed an increase in the murders of officers in the line of duty due to the media attention on the “war on cops.” However, the results of this research study found no evidence indicating an increase in the number of murders of U.S. police officers.
 * A study released in the spring of 2019 by a U.S. attorney general and another American attorney researched the effects of implementing policy that would require U.S. police officers to wear body cameras as a means of counteracting the Ferguson effect. The study emphasized that the addition of police-worn body cameras could be an antidote to the depolicing that may be occurring as a result of the Ferguson effect, citing the theory of self-awareness. However, the study also brings attention to criticisms against the implementation of police-worn body cameras as a violation of privacy rights concerning bystanders in the video as well as statutory protection of police recordings.


 * An article by amnesty.org released in August of 2020 reports, “The unnecessary and sometimes excessive use of force by police against protesters exhibits the very systemic racism and impunity they had taken to the streets to protest,” adding to the negative publicity of police in a summary of multiple human rights violations.
 * A BBC News article published in July of 2020 emphasizing the violent actions of police officers by relaying the events that occurred on the night George Flloyd was killed, including the words from a fellow protestor "They killed this man, bro. He was crying, telling them 'I can't breathe.'" Furthermore, this article includes the less publicized story of Justin Howell and how he was shot in the head and shot at again by the police after attempting to reach the police officers for aid.

Criticism
William Bratton, the then-New York City Police Commissioner, said in 2015 that he had seen no evidence of a "Ferguson effect" in his city. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch testified before Congress on November 17, 2015, that there was "no data" to support claims that the Ferguson effect existed. According to Slate, Ronald L. Davis, a former police chief and the executive director of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, testified at the same hearing that the notion that police would fail to do their jobs because they were scared was "an insult to the profession". In December 2015, Edward A. Flynn, police chief of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said that although police were unnerved due to anti-police protests, this was not solely responsible for the increase in violent crime observed in his city recently, because rates of such crimes there started increasing before Michael Brown was shot.

President Obama also said in a 2015 speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police that although gun violence and homicides had spiked in some U.S. cities, "so far at least across the nation, the data shows that we are still enjoying historically low rates of violent crime", and "What we can't do is cherry-pick data or use anecdotal evidence to drive policy or to feed political agendas."

In a 2016 article, Samuel Sinyangwe outlines three assumptions that function as the premise of the Ferguson effect: a decrease in police officer aggression, an increase in violent crime, and an increase in crime due reduction in proactive policing. However, Sinyangwe then references an 8% increase in the number of people police officers have killed since the 2014 killing in Ferguson, Missouri as well as the Marshall Project and the Justice Department statistics that indicate no significant difference in crime rates. This information directly contradicts all three premises that the Ferguson effect is based off of because the third premise relies on the others in its assumptions.

Planned Changes of Ferguson effect Wikipedia page
I intend to update the research and criticism sections of the Ferguson effect article. Currently, the article presents multiple research studies concerning the Ferguson effect and crime. However, these studies are all dated from 2016-2018. There are no studies included from more research years. I think there are many more journal articles related to the topic available especially considering the strength of the Black Lives Matter movement this past summer.

1.    Research

1.1 Crime

In this subsection, I plan to add more recent and updated studies concerning crime rates, the Ferguson effect, and its relation to policing. The article currently has a good list of studies, but it simply                                    needs to be updated to reflect current research and journals.

-References:

1. Campbell, Bradley A, Justin Nix, and Edward R Maguire. “Is the Number of Citizens Fatally Shot by Police Increasing in the Post-Ferguson Era?” Crime and delinquency 64, no. 3 (2017): 398–420.

2.  Alberto R. Gonzales; Donald Q. Cochran, "Police-Worn Body Cameras: An Antidote to the Ferguson Effect," Missouri Law Review 82, no. 2 (Spring 2017): 299-338.

1.2  Negative publicity of police

Within this subsection of the article, I intend to add recent reports concerning anti-police sentiment and growing support of defunding the police. Particularly, I will highlight this in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement. I also plan to add studies concerning politics and voting in relation to the media’s portrayal of police brutality.

-References:

1. Ketron, Grace. 2019. How Media Covered Police Shootings During and After Ferguson: Framing Analysis of Officer-Involved Shootings In 2014 and 2016. https://doi.org/10.17615/1bv5-cy88

2. MacDonald, John M. “De‐policing as a Consequence of the So‐called ‘Ferguson Effect.’” Criminology & Public Policy 18, no. 1 (February 2019): 47–49.

3. Wozniak, Kevin H, Brian R Calfano, and Kevin M Drakulich. “A ‘Ferguson Effect’ on 2016 Presidential Vote Preference? Findings from a Framing Experiment Examining ‘Shy Voters’ and Cues Related to Policing and Social Unrest.” Social science quarterly 100, no. 4 (2019): 1023–1038.

4. Maguire, Edward R., Justin Nix, and Bradley A. Campbell. “A War on Cops? The Effects of Ferguson on the Number of U.S. Police Officers Murdered in the Line of Duty.” Justice Quarterly 34, no. 5 (2016): 739–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2016.1236205.

2.    Criticism

In the criticism section, I will add responses to research and studies concerning the Ferguson effect to show that there is criticism. Furthermore, I will include media coverage and discussion on the Ferguson effect, making sure these sources are updated.

-References:

1. Sinyangwe, Samuel. "Stop Pretending the "Ferguson Effect" is Real 1." Ufahamu : Journal of the African Activist Association (Online) 39, no. 1 (Winter, 2016): 23-25. http://ezproxy.rice.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1781171914?accountid=7064.

2. Nix, Justin, and Scott E. Wolfe. “Management-Level Officers’ Experiences with the Ferguson Effect.” Policing: An International Journal 41, no. 2 (2018): 262–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm-11-2016-0164.

3. Galovski, Tara E, Zoë D Peterson, Marin C Beagley, David R Strasshofer, Philip Held, and Thomas D Fletcher. “Exposure to Violence During Ferguson Protests: Mental Health Effects for Law Enforcement and Community Members: Effects of Exposure to Violence in Ferguson.” Journal of traumatic stress 29, no. 4 (August 2016): 283–292.