Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In a recent publication Kaminsky and Stucky (2009) claim our finding that the presence of a black mayor reduces killings of police officers (see Jacobs & Carmichael 2002) does not hold after they correct an error I made in the 2002 publication. Kaminsky and Stucky, however, ignore our most comprehensive models, which included a nonlinear specification with considerable explanatory power. They instead confine their reanalysis to a simplified and initial less exhaustive model in our paper that did not include the nonlinear specification without mentioning this and other omissions. After I correct my error, and retain the nonlinear specification that was in our definitive models, multiple versions of this model continue to support our hypothesis that the presence of a black mayor reduces killings of police officers. This comment concludes by outsome problems in Kaminski and Stucky’s analysis of later data.

Keywords

Officers Killed Reanalysis Misspecification by ignoring nonlinearities.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bishop, G.F. ( 2005). The illusion of public opinion: Fact and artifact in American public opinion polls. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Bobo, L. , & Gilliam, F.B. ( 1990). Race, sociopolitical participation, and Black empowerment . American Political Science Review, 84, 377-393.

Converse, P.E. ( 1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics. In D. A. Apter (Ed.), Ideology and discontent (pp. 75-169). New York: Free Press.

Delli Carpini, M.X. , & Keeter, S. ( 1996). What Americans know about politics and why it matters . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Jacobs, D. , & Carmichael, J.T. (2002). Subordination and violence against state control agents: Testing political explanations for lethal assaults against the police. Social Forces, 80, 1223-1251.

Kaminski, R.J. , & Stucky, T.D. ( 2009). Reassessing political explanations for murders of the police. Homicide Studies, 13, 3-20.

Kent, Stephanie L. 2010. "Killings of Police in U.S. Cities since 1980: An Examination of Environmental and Political Explanations." Homicide Studies 14: 3-23.

Neuman, W.R. ( 1986). The paradox of mass politics: Knowledge and opinion in the American electorate. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wilson, W.J. ( 1978). The declining significance of race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

The Influence of Black Mayors on Police Officers Killed: A Comment on Kaminski and Stucky

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References