Date
4-26-2024
Department
Helms School of Government
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)
Chair
Jared L. Perry
Keywords
Historical Injustices, Police Brutality, Police Culture, African American, Ethnicity, Race, Minority
Disciplines
Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Rhone, Claude M., "Police Brutality: The Nexus Between Historical Injustices, Police Culture and the African American Experience" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5415.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5415
Abstract
This study focused on the harassment, maltreatment, and brutality of African Americans by police officers. The recent widespread condemnation and social justice protests in response to incidents of police brutality point to historical injustices inherent to the culture of policing. Slavery provides the overarching backdrop; however, Jim Crow laws cultivated the structural adaptations necessary to fulfill segregation between African Americans and Whites. The American policing model, which evolved from slave patrols to public entities, continued as an apparatus in the marginalization and disenfranchisement of African Americans. The narrative of “defunding the police” suggests that the past’s cultural proximity renders the current system inadequate to effectively police African Americans. The core argument in this dissertation is that despite changes in legislation, political policies, social behavior, and contemporary policing strategies steeped in professionalism and training, the incidents of police brutality in the African American community remain consistent. Research also misguidedly attributes police brutality of African Americans to training issues rather than the privilege of an unjust social structure. Using a qualitative case study approach to analyzing secondary and archival data, six themes emerged to answer the two research questions posed in this study, which were to determine (a) how race or ethnicity influence the interactions between members of the police force and the general public and (b) the current elements of the police culture in the U.S. that potentially influence discriminatory policing. This research contributes to the current knowledge base and provides broader scholarship on police brutality, the implications of historical injustices, ingrained police culture, and the implications toward gaining legitimacy within the African American community.
