Investigating implicit biases around race and gender in Canadian counterterrorism

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 594-613
Author(s):  
Rachel Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Religious Stereotypes ◽  
Policies And Practices

A growing body of research on terrorism and countering violent extremism (CVE) has increasingly questioned the lack of attention to—and myths around—women involved in extremist and political violence, while other research has drawn attention to racial and religious stereotypes that affect national security policies and practices worldwide. While Canada is often heralded as a global leader in multiculturalism and gender equality, the nation’s national security sector still faces significant challenges around implicit biases related to race and gender. This study asks whether gender and racial stereotypes impeding counterterrorism and CVE in other countries are also affecting policies and practices in Canada. Using twenty-six in-depth interviews with practitioners, police officers, academics, and government officials from seven major cities across Canada, this paper argues that persistent gender and racial stereotypes are indeed a key challenge impeding Canada’s efforts to adequately address radicalization into and disengagement from extremist violence.

Legal Issues in Intergroup Relations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Choi
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Intergroup Bias ◽  
Communication Accommodation ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Legal Context ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Jury Decisions ◽  
The Impact

An intergroup perspective in the legal context highlights the influence of group membership on the interaction between authorities and citizens. Social identity influences communication both in the field (e.g., police–civilian) and in the courtroom (e.g., juror deliberation). The research in the law enforcement context addresses trust in police officers, the communication accommodation between police and civilians, sociodemographic stereotypes impacting police–civilian encounters, the role of police media portrayals, and its influence on intergroup exchanges between police and civilians. Juries are inextricably influenced by group membership cues (e.g., race and gender), and differentiate those in the ingroup over the outgroup. The impact of stereotypes and intergroup bias is evident in the literature on jury decisions and the severity of punitive sentencing. These and other factors make the intergroup nature of the legal context significant, and they determine the interconnection between the parties involved. Specifically, the social identity approach brings focus to the biases, attributions, and overall evaluations of the perceived outgroup. The research indicates that diversity is necessary to alleviate the intergroup mindset, thereby encouraging a more interindividual viewpoint of those outgroup members.

The Gay South

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Watkins
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Gay History ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Presentation ◽  
The Cold War

Regional variation, race, gender presentation, and class differences mean that there are many “Gay Souths.” Same-sex desire has been a feature of the human experience since the beginning, but the meanings, expressions, and ability to organize one’s life around desire have shifted profoundly since the invention of sexuality in the mid-19th century. World War II represented a key transition in gay history, as it gave many people a language for their desires. During the Cold War, government officials elided sex, race, and gender transgression with subversion and punished accordingly by state committees. These forces profoundly shaped gay social life, and rather than a straight line from closet to liberation, gays in the South have meandered. Movement rather than stasis, circulation rather than congregation, and the local rather than the stranger as well as creative uses of space and place mean that the gay South is distinctive, though not wholly unique, from the rest of the country.

Focal Concerns and Police Use of Force

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew S. Crow ◽  
Brittany Adrion
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Public Media ◽  
And Gender

The use of force by police officers is a regular source of interest among the public, media, scholars, and criminal justice professionals. Tasers have emerged as an important and increasingly popular technology for police departments. Despite the increasing adoption and use of Tasers and the controversy surrounding their use, relatively little prior research examines the factors associated with Taser use by police officers. Guided by the focal concerns theoretical perspective, the current study uses data from a medium-size police department to analyze the factors that influence Taser use. Logistic regression models provide evidence that Taser use is influenced by suspect resistance as well as the race and gender of the suspect involved. Implications for policy and research are discussed.

scholarly journals Visualizing Participatory Inequities in Classroom Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poorna TalkadSukumar ◽  
Daniel L. Reinholz ◽  
Niral Shah ◽  
Aaron D. Striegel
Keyword(s):  
Design Space ◽  
Classroom Participation ◽  
Design Study ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Classroom Data

Classroom participation data, disaggregated by race and gender, can enable teachers to reflect on their implicit biases and make informed changes to their practices. In this design study, we collaborated with researchers in education to explore a design space for representing participatory inequities in classroom data. This work contributes to the relatively new area of addressing implicit biases using visualizations and more broadly, aims at improving equity in classrooms.

scholarly journals Algorithmic Discrimination Causes Less Moral Outrage than Human Discrimination

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yochanan Bigman ◽  
Kurt Gray ◽  
Adam Waytz ◽  
Mads Arnestad ◽  
Desman Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Racial Stereotypes ◽  
Hiring Practices ◽  
Moral Outrage ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Systemic Discrimination ◽  
Practical Implications

The use of algorithms hold promise for overcoming human biases in decision making. Companies and governments are using algorithms to improve decision-making for hiring, medical treatments, and parole. Unfortunately, as with humans, some of these algorithms make persistently biased decisions, functionally discriminating people based on their race and gender. Media coverage suggests that people are morally outraged by algorithmic discrimination, but here we examine whether people are less outraged by algorithmic discrimination than by human discrimination. Six studies test this algorithmic outrage asymmetry hypothesis across diverse discrimination in hiring practices (sexism, ageism, racism) and across diverse participant groups (online samples, a quasi-representative sample, and a sample of tech workers). As predicted, people are less morally outraged by algorithmic discrimination. The studies further reveal that this algorithmic outrage asymmetry is driven by the reduced attribution of prejudicial motivation to machines. We also reveal a downstream consequence of algorithmic outrage asymmetry—people are more likely to endorse racial stereotypes after algorithmic discrimination versus human discrimination. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results, including the potential weakening of collective action to address systemic discrimination.

scholarly journals Implicit Bias in Judicial Decision Making How It Affects Judgment and What Judges Can Do About It

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Wistrich ◽  
Jeffrey J. Rachlinski
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Implicit Bias ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Systematic Errors ◽  
Judicial Decision ◽  
Judicial Decision Making ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Gender Biases ◽  
Implicit Biases ◽  
And Gender

This Chapter reviews research indicating that judges, like most adults, rely too heavily on intuition while making important decisions. This tendency leaves them vulnerable to using overly simplistic cognitive strategies to decide cases, which creates predictable, systematic errors in judgment. It can also facilitate a reliance on implicit race and gender biases while deciding cases. Numerous strategies are available that would allow judges to stop and deliberate more carefully. This Chapter also describes these strategies. If adopted, judges would avoid excessive reliance on intuition and implicit biases so as to make better, more just judgments.

Referral Patterns for Youths Identified at Risk for Suicide by Trained Gatekeepers

Crisis ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Rodi ◽  
Lucas Godoy Garraza ◽  
Christine Walrath ◽  
Robert L. Stephens ◽  
D. Susanne Condron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Service Access ◽  
Referral Patterns ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Lee Smith ◽  
Prevention Behavior ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
And Gender ◽  
To Receive

Background: In order to better understand the posttraining suicide prevention behavior of gatekeeper trainees, the present article examines the referral and service receipt patterns among gatekeeper-identified youths. Methods: Data for this study were drawn from 26 Garrett Lee Smith grantees funded between October 2005 and October 2009 who submitted data about the number, characteristics, and service access of identified youths. Results: The demographic characteristics of identified youths are not related to referral type or receipt. Furthermore, referral setting does not seem to be predictive of the type of referral. Demographic as well as other (nonrisk) characteristics of the youths are not key variables in determining identification or service receipt. Limitations: These data are not necessarily representative of all youths identified by gatekeepers represented in the dataset. The prevalence of risk among all members of the communities from which these data are drawn is unknown. Furthermore, these data likely disproportionately represent gatekeepers associated with systems that effectively track gatekeepers and youths. Conclusions: Gatekeepers appear to be identifying youth across settings, and those youths are being referred for services without regard for race and gender or the settings in which they are identified. Furthermore, youths that may be at highest risk may be more likely to receive those services.

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