Inequality and Police Use of Deadly Force: An Empirical Assessment of a Conflict Hypothesis

Conflict theorists assume that force or its threat is the fundamental element that holds unequal societies together. Because conflict theorists also hold that the state's monopoly of violence is controlled by those who benefit from inequality, it follows that the control agents of the state should be more likely to use extreme force when economic inequality is most pronounced. This hypothesis was tested with data on the number of killings committed by policemen in the American states. After controlling for six additional explanations, we found that the police were most likely to use deadly force in the most unequal states. The amount of violent crimes and riots and the percentage change in population also predicted these lethal events. But the major implication of our findings is that a hypothesis derived from confict theory does predict the amount of police-caused homicides.