Adam M. Butz

Estimating anti-immigrant sentiment for the American states using multi-level modeling and post-stratification, 2004–2008

An estimate is provided of an innovative state-level measure of anti-immigrant sentiment for use in future policy and behavioral studies. State governments became increasingly active in adopting immigrant policies in the 2000s. Previous research highlights the role of public opinion, especially attitudes toward immigrants, in explaining policy priorities and outcomes. Unfortunately, most extant studies utilize political ideology or immigrant populations as rough proxies for public opinion. In this article, we estimate a reliable and valid measure of anti-immigrant sentiment at the state-level using survey aggregation with multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) for the period 2004 to 2008. We compare our estimates of anti-immigrant sentiment to alternative measures of immigrant presence and political ideology in predicting multiple variations of state immigrant policies. Ultimately, we find theoretical and statistical advantages of using anti-immigrant sentiment over previous measures in predicting immigrant policies.

Introduction: Race and Representative Bureaucracy in American Policing

This introductory chapter establishes the importance and timeliness of this project and explains how representative bureaucracy theory highlights issues of race in American policing. First, we introduce the historical context of race and policing in America and specifically address key issues identified in the scholarship surrounding police–community relations as it relates to African-Americans and Latinos. Next, we outline our primary research agenda which focuses on three major research questions: To what extent do local police forces nationwide reflect the proportional racial makeup of local minority populations? How do potential causal mechanisms such as economic, environmental, political, and institutional factors influence minority representation on local police forces? How does racial underrepresentation impact policing outcomes such as the frequency of complaints of excessive force and police homicides?

Passive Representation in American Policing: Trends and Changes, 1993–2013

This chapter presents an extensive analysis of changes and trends in racial representation across US law enforcement agencies. Our analysis includes law enforcement and civilian demographics across more than 1500 US counties for the period between 1993 and 2007. We then take a closer look at passive representation in policing in America’s 100 largest cities for the period between 1993 and 2013. In both cases, we show that passive representation has steadily decreased over time. Law enforcement agencies today are less representative of the populations they serve than they were two decades ago. Representation varies from group to group, with Blacks experiencing the most extreme underrepresentation. Finally, these changes in representation coincide with significant changes in the size and nature of law enforcement agencies, suggesting that decreases in representation may be caused by unrepresentative hiring practices.

Causes of Passive Representation in American Policing: Politics and Officer Selection

The previous chapter paints a clear picture of minority underrepresentation in American policing. Yet, we observe considerable variation in the degree of representation, both across groups and over time. This chapter attempts to explain this variation. Why are some departments more racially representative than others? Why do departments’ representativeness change over time? Using comprehensive data from 100 large cities over a twenty-year period, we test three possible explanations for this variation. First, the makeup of law enforcement agencies may be susceptible to influence by political leaders . When these leaders care about the racial makeup of the police department’s rank and file, they may alter its degree of representation . Second, requirements and restrictions surrounding the hiring of police officers are likely to influence the racial makeup of the force. We focus on one type of requirements, those that mandate that officers live within a certain distance of the jurisdiction. Finally, union presence and strength affects the ease of hiring and firing officer, making it plausible that union presence might also affect the racial makeup of the police force. While all of these characteristics are correlated with changes in passive representation , we find especially robust evidence of influence by political leaders.

Conclusions and Lessons for Reform

In this final chapter, we discuss the current state of police–community relations and offer recommendations to scholars, practitioners, and frontline managers who desire a more representative and ultimately harmonious relationship between citizens and police including improved and more equitable outcomes. We outline our primary contributions to the academic study of policing and representative bureaucracy . Based on each of those findings, we suggest appropriate policy solutions to address current problems. We argue that these policy solutions offer the potential to improve police–community relations , specifically the relationship between police and minorities. Further, we outline important questions that remain in the field of representative bureaucracy at large, and its application specifically in the area of policing.

Unpacking the Foundations of Representative Bureaucracy Theory and American Policing

In this chapter, we review the representative bureaucracy literature and set the theoretical foundations for the rest of this book. First, we delineate the two primary dimensions of representative bureaucracy theory : passive and active representation . Next, we make a case for the application of representative bureaucracy theory to the area of policing. We outline the key issues of race and policing in America and highlight important scholarship explaining the historical context of effects of race on community–police relations, particularly as it pertains to African-Americans and other minorities . We then turn to the application of representative bureaucracy in the context of policing. We include an overview of the work that has been done in this area as well as the need for additional research, situating the case of the police within the broader context of representative bureaucracy. Finally, we highlight the importance of understanding policing from a representative bureaucracy perspective as a necessary component of establishing effective policing policy and practice.

Active Representation in American Policing

How does racial representation in law enforcement affect policing outcomes? After all, while passive representation may be intuitively desirable for normative reasons, it should matter most if it leads to changes in the nature and quality of police service provision. This chapter explores the effects of representation on police use of force , both proper and improper. We argue that when the police are more representative of the populations they serve, they should be less likely to behave in ways that harm members of the community. We draw on a number of data sources and outcomes to test this argument. First, we demonstrate that representation is associated with administrative procedures viewed as community-friendly, including formal department policies on how to handle citizen complaints and the presence of a civilian review board to oversee police activities. We then find that increasing representation of Blacks in the police leads to fewer complaints of excessive force . Finally, we look at a more extreme outcome, civilian fatalities caused by the actions of a law enforcement officer. Counterintuitively, we find that representation is associated with a greater number of fatalities. This chapter concludes by suggesting possible explanations for this surprising result.

Administrative Privatization and Employment Outcomes in the Implementation of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

Background: Welfare reform in the 1990s encouraged states and localities to contract out cash assistance services to for-profit and nonprofit firms operating within the private sector. Although privatized welfare delivery was heralded in the wake of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), scant empirical research evaluates welfare privatization and its potential relationship with administrative quality and program outcomes. Objectives: This study examines the relationship between administrative privatization and TANF program outcomes, including work participation activities, unsubsidized employment, employment closure, and monthly earnings, across a large sample of individual welfare clients in the state of Florida. Results: The results of methodologically appropriate hierarchical linear models demonstrate that ownership variables seldom enhance the quality of TANF outcomes, suggesting that privatization alone is not an administrative panacea in human support services. Although direct privatization effects are often found to be substantively small and inconsistent in terms of service quality improvement, in closed-case models, there is evidence that nonprofit welfare delivery is associated with superior TANF employment closure outcomes.