Why Seeing the Big Picture in the Study of Public Safety Is Necessary for Combatting Racism within It

Abstract

Abstract Quantitative social science has primarily studied policing in general and racial disparities in policing specifically by focusing on micro- and mesolevel phenomena rather than engaging macrolevel phenomena. Policy recommendations informed by quantitative social science therefore end up focused on reforming what are framed as patterns of errors rather than on the broader systems that produce the conditions for these interactions. The current approach places quantitative social science out of step with contemporary debates about public safety, including when and whether to deploy police at all. This chapter examines why quantitative social science has thus far missed the big picture, the consequences, and what integrating macrolevel approaches in our research might look like.