Today, I conducted some statistical tests to evaluate whether there is a relationship between race and gender in police use of force. I aimed to determine whether certain racial groups have a higher-than-expected number of male or female victims. By this, I could indicate a racially disproportionate pattern in law enforcement interactions.
To do this, I used a contingency table with two categorical variables: race (rows) and gender (columns). Each cell in the table represents the frequency of incidents involving police shooting on a specific racial group and gender. I then calculated the expected frequency for each cell with the assumption that race and gender are independent and compared these expected values with the observed frequencies (cell values).
The results show that there are significant differences in how law enforcement engages with different racial communities, particularly among White, Black, and Hispanic men and women. These researches suggest potential disparities in police use of force based on both race and gender.