Degree of vulnerability to misuse of police & legal systems
People have a right to be treated equally, justly, and without bias by police and legal systems. Below, find data sources to determine exposure, vulnerability, and related resources.
We believe it is important to note that disparities in data do not necessarily prove that there is racial bias in a department's operations or within the officers themselves. Bias is difficult to prove, as it requires proving intent and knowing what is in the minds of officers. With that, bias is also difficult to measure. However, the fact that there are clear racial disparities indicates that there may be a larger social problem related to policing and the race of the citizen, regardless of whether the cause is bias or something else. To learn more about bias and vulnerability to bias within systems, click here.
measuring degree of vulnerability to misuse
defining & assessing vulnerability
According to the National Library of Medicine,
- The term vulnerability is frequently used across Law Enforcement and Public Health to identify those in need of these services.
- Effective vulnerability assessment is therefore expected to prevent unintentional harmful health and criminal justice consequences and manage the negative impact of such in cases where prevention is not possible.
- Vulnerability is context specific from a Law Enforcement perspective, but person specific from a Public Health perspective.
- Vulnerability is perceived and prioritized differently across different organizations.
- There is a large emphasis on of the necessity of a partnership working among the intersections of policing and public health.
- “An ‘all encompassing’ perspective outlines vulnerability as a state or condition whereby a person is in danger, under threat, experiencing health challenges, at risk, and/or requiring support/protection”
How do you know if you are vulnerable to police or legal system misuse?
See U.S. Department of Justice to learn about your rights regarding Law Enforcement Misconduct.
Utilize the FBI crime data explorer (CDE) to access crime statistics for your country, state, county, or town.
To analyze & interpret these crime reports:
- Identify crime hotspots on a crime map - does this include your area?
- Look for trends on a crime map
- Do crime rates increase, decrease, or stabilize over a given time period?
- Are certain types of crimes more prevalent in your area?
- Is there suspected profiling of criminals in your area?
- Compare data from multiple sources to ensure accuracy
CrimeGrade is the standard in neighborhood-based crime data in the US. This source provides unparalleled crime data and interactive maps for every major crime that agencies track, based on location.
CrimeGrade Instructions: Open Tool > type in zip code in search bar and click explore > click overall crime or violent crime or property crime at the top of the map based on desired data > click more for other crime types available based on your selected location > consult crime grades colorized key at bottom of map > you can see grade breakdown for neighborhoods and counties visually within your location but can only see the specifics regarding cost of crime for the overall city wide location which is located beneath the key > scroll down for a breakdown of the costs of specific crime types within the selected city.
ADT provides data on prevalence of crime including assault, motor vehicle theft, larceny, burglary, murder, personal crime, property crime, rape, robbery
ADT Instructions: Open tool > type in desired location in bar under “Crime Rate Maps From ADT” > zoom in to a colored location in that area of the map and click on outlined location > consult colorized key on left hand side for relative crime rate in comparison to national average > clicking on the specific location on the map will give you the exact number for how many times greater or less than the crime rate is in comparison to national average > for a look at the rates of specific crimes, click on the drop down bar within the colorized key and select desired crimes
According to Legal Defense Fund,
- Current politicized discussions of crime often ignore or distort crime data to intensify public fear, heighten racial tension, and undermine criminal justice reforms attempting promote long-term, sustainable public safety.
- The best way to protect against such attempts that hijack public discussions of crime and public safety is to be informed about how discussions of crime statistics can be manipulated for political gain.
- Public officials, regardless of party affiliation, create fear-mongering narratives about why crimes are happening to convince the public that their strategy is correct.
- These harmful narratives are not new, but a cyclical component of U.S. history.
- View the full report here.
Prison Policy provides a profile for each state which includes statistics, graphs, total numbers of incarcerations (instead of rates), and differences by gender and ethnicity.
- For each state, you can view a graph showing data for people in state prisons and local jails per 100,000 state residents in each race or ethnicity category
- For each state, you can click a link to view overall incarceration rates over time, but it only provides data through 2015
Prison Policy Instructions: Open Tool > click Search in the top right corner > type in “(insert desired state) profile” > click the first available link > view data OR from the home page, scroll down to the interactive map of the US > click on desired state.
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is a standardized framework for measuring information systems’ severity of security flaws.
- Based on 3 main factors: Base, Temporal, Environmental
- Base: inherent characteristics of vulnerability
- Temporal: considers how those characteristics may change over time
- Environmental: evaluates how the vulnerability could affect a specific environment
- Score from 0-10 (0 meaning minimal severity, 10 meaning severe issues)
- Two common uses are calculating the severity of one’s systems and as a factor in prioritization of vulnerability remediation activities
Visit local government or police websites to view online crime maps or statistic dashboards
Submit a request for public records through a local police station or county clerk’s office if online data isn’t readily available.
Understanding crime statistics for an area:
- What is the source and how reliable is it?
- Has there been systemic misreporting?
- Is the source of information independent and unbiased?
- How does an observation relate to local, regional, and national patterns?
- Based on demographic and area, do crime rates change? Is your area more susceptible to over-criminalization?
SpotCrime provides crime trend descriptions, analytic breakdowns, and information on cold cases and missing persons.
SpotCrime Instructions: Open Tool > select browse by state which allows you to select your desired state and then city at top of page or type in location in search bar > click symbol on map to see crime specifics > scroll down beneath map for time stamp of crimes
Utilize the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR). This source provides reliable statistics for use in law enforcement. It also provides information for students of criminal justice, researchers, the media, and the public.
UCR Interactive Data Instructions: Open Tool > Filter data in the left-most column on the page by type of crime, location, agency, and time frame > view changes in graph > hover over data points for details
criminalization of populations
Prison Policy provides data for prison/jail populations in each state by sex, age, race & ethnicity. This tool can allow for comparison to total state populations, revealing trends among incarcerated populations by state.
Prison Policy Instructions: Open Tool> menu > data toolbox > scroll down to “state level criminal justice data (all states)” > click “Incarcerated populations by race/ethnicity and gender for each state” hyperlink > open data for State Prison Population (2021).
For Jail Trends By State: Open Tool > menu > data toolbox > scroll down to “state level criminal justice data (all states)” > click “jail incarceration trends by state” hyperlink > view data for jail trends by state
Overall Patterns from data
- People of color are overrepresented in prisons and jails
- Compared to the total state population, Black people are overrepresented in the incarcerated population, while white people are underrepresented
- Local jails in each EPA Region 4 state serve as the sole providers of detention space for immigrant enforcement
- Pretrial policies have driven recent jail growth in each of these states
- Each EPA Region 4 state alone incarcerates a higher percentage of its people than any independent democratic country in the world
What the data shows
Disproportionate representations in data
What we know:
- In low SES neighborhoods across all races, people are more likely to be victimized and criminalized than in a wealthy neighborhood. Who lives in these neighborhoods?
- According to a 2022 study, the white population had the lowest share of people living in high poverty (3.6%), while the Native American population had the highest (22%). This matters because all neighborhoods should be communities of equal opportunity, regardless of identity.
- Those living in high poverty/low SES neighborhoods have less access to employment, services, education, safe streets, and overall less economic and social success.
- People of color are significantly more likely to live in a high-poverty neighborhood, even if they themselves are not in poverty
- This is true due to the long history of racial segregation in the US - practices like expropriation of Indigenous lands, racially exclusive housing incentives, and redlining. These early practices laid the foundation for patterns of segregation among marginalized groups.
- These inequities are still maintained today through redlining and exclusionary zoning.
The USDOJ provides a guide to police staffing and allocation. View the full report here.
GPS Tracking Study - 2023
- This study revealed a strong correlation between racial and ethnic composition of a neighborhood and police presence
- Findings suggest that disparities in exposure to police are associated with both structural and socioeconomic disparities and discretionary decision making by police commanders and officers
- Overall, the study found that higher arrest rates of Black residents were connected to more officer time spent in Black neighborhood more than others
- These trends persist even after controlling for density, SES, and crime driven demand for policing, demonstrating that there are in fact racial biases, therefore disparities, in data on police presence in neighborhoods.
- View the full study here.
Low SES populations in data
- According to Brookings, impoverished populations may suffer disproportionately from legal problems. When talking about access to justice, we must consider “access for whom?” Access is often made “widely available” (because it is required by law), but in practice, navigating legal problems is heavily dependent on resources and knowledge of the system.
- Access is practically defined by resources and opportunities, which is often obstructed by overlapping layers of vulnerability including poverty, limited financial resources, race, sexuality, gender, language, lack of trust, education, physical ability, etc.
- We can begin to address the “access for whom” question by assessing the distribution of the frequency and type of legal problems, and their impacts.
- According to EJUSA, Justice for a few = a punishment for the poor. When court-appointed lawyers lack the experience or resources to do an effective job in a capital case, their mistakes can cost a life - meaning, the constitutional right to an attorney is simply not enough.
- Based on the Legal Needs Survey conducted by the HiiL, which covers 13 countries of various incomes, representing over 70,000 respondents, data concludes:
- Low-income households are more likely to experience legal problems
- Low-income households are more likely to experience certain types of legal problems
- Low-income households suffer adverse impacts from legal problems
unequal police representation by location
Many cities near the top of the list in terms of police presence tend to be areas with higher crime rates. According to University professor Meg Hollis, “It’s a lot easier for a chief to go to a budget meeting and ask for more officers if there’s a visible crime problem.” In general, suburban jurisdictions and mid-size cities employ fewer officers per capita, but crime rates are not the only factor dictating the size of a city’s police force - budget and geographic size of jurisdiction must also be considered. Most research suggests that the effect of hiring additional officers plateaus once staffing reaches a certain point, while some research reports a negative correlation between higher staffing and crime rates. So how much more effective are larger police forces in reducing crime? Is the number of law enforcement officers the determining factor in minimizing crime?
patrolling in neighborhoods
- Research on policing has mainly focused on actions like stop and arrest, so less is known about patrols and presence.
- We know that where police officers are located matters - it affects where crimes are deterred, what crimes are reported or officially recorded, and what the public knows about the crimes that happen.
Most over & under policed cities in America
This study uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Survey. The average for the metropolitan area was about 1.3 police officers for every violent crime committed - but some areas have over 20 police officers per violent crime, others having less than one for every 5 violent crimes (great variation).
To analyze this data:
- See “the most over policed cities in America” chart within this article. Find city of interest. Ask questions about why these cities are so disproportionately policed:
- What is the demographic in these cities?
- What is the SES make-up?
- What types of crime are most reported in these cities?
- Who is reported to commit what crimes and how often?