Exploring The Circumstances Of Juvenile Victims Of Officer-Involved Shootings

Author

Ari Mathias Schröder, Prairie View A&M University

Date of Award

8-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Discipline

Juvenile Justice

Abstract

Officer involved shooting (OIS) incidents and racial/ethnic disparities are not new, however, academic rigor and media attention are. OIS research suggests Blacks and Latinos are more often killed by officers than Whites. Situational characteristics like being armed, mental illness, attacking officers and/or fleeing officers and environmental characteristics like economic status, racial composition, and/or violent crime have been found to correlate, predict, and/or explain these racial/ethnic disparities in OIS incidents. Media-sourced databases that catalog OIS incidents estimate there are about 1,000 OIS incidents per year in the United States. Related research suggests that media disparately portrays racial/ethnic minorities in media articles about OIS incidents. Female victims of OIS incidents do not fare any better.

One noticeable gap in the extant literature and media, however, is the age of OIS victims. Utilizing OIS data from Mapping Police Violence from 2013 to 2023 (n = 156) and other incident details collected from media articles, this dissertation explored juvenile OIS victims in three ways. Chapter One is a quantitative study that asked whether racial/ethnic disparities exist in OIS incidents that involve juvenile victims and whether those expected disparities were exacerbated by situational and/or environmental factors. Findings include that Black victims were 3.52 times more often and Latino victims were 1.37 times more often killed by officers compared to Whites. Situational and/or environmental factors regressed onto Victim Race/Ethnicity exacerbated expected racial/ethnic disparities, however, fell short of significance.

Chapter Two is a mixed-method study that asked whether racial/ethnic disparities exist in OIS incidents that involve juvenile victims, whether these victims were portrayed in media articles using frameworks like Syntax, Rationalization, Characterization, Visibility, Context, and Criminalblackman, and whether these frameworks varied by Victim Race/Ethnicity. Findings include articles more often blamed victims, justified officer conduct, demonized victims, visualized victims, situated specific OIS incidents within the broader context of police violence, and used Criminalblackman for minority juvenile OIS victims (albeit short of significance).

Chapter Three is a qualitative study that explored (1) the characteristics of female juvenile OIS victims and whether racial/ethnic disparities exist in said incidents, (2) the circumstances of these incidents and whether said incidents fit the traditional definition of OIS incidents, and (3) whether these victims were portrayed in media articles using frameworks like Good Girl/Bad Girl, Girl In Peril, Environment Type, and Adultification Bias and whether these frameworks varied by Victim Race/Ethnicity. Findings include articles more often used “bad girl” language for minority victims, more often portrayed White victims as “girls in peril,” more often portrayed minority victims as from “bad environments,” and more often “adultified” minority victims.

Committee Chair/Advisor

Camille Gibson

Committee Co-Chair:

Robin Jackson

Committee Member

Nabil Ouassini

Committee Member

William Guzman

Publisher

Prairie View A&M University

Rights

Date of Digitization

9/26/2023

Contributing Institution

J. B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

Recommended Citation

Schröder, A. M. (2023). Exploring The Circumstances Of Juvenile Victims Of Officer-Involved Shootings. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.pvamu.edu/pvamu-dissertations/28