During the last thirty years a substantial number of social geographers, criminologists and experts in the regional sciences have demonstrated a growing interest in the geography crime. According to Georges (1978: 2), the geography of crime involves methods and theoretical foundations that make this research different from other approaches that study violence and corruption. The importance of this type of social science focus is that is associates the practice of anti-social relations with the spatial distribution of their negative effects. The geographical space is important in any form of social interaction and in the exercise of political, martial or paramilitary power (Georges).

Police brutality is against the law wherever it occurs in the U.S., and those who commit such acts can be subjected to civil suits by their victims (Maran 1999). Those who investigate the geography of crime seem to overlook this particular offense. Although significant progress has been made when looking at law enforcement misconduct, most studies concerning police malpractice have not been geographical. The majority of these studies contain little information about the regional differe

During the early 1970s the U.S. Civil Rights Commission found widespread police conduct against Mexican American in the Southwest between the 1960s and early 1970s (Cruz). During the past decade, Arizona, California and Texas were among the top ten states with the highest rates of Federal agents accused of misconduct. The rates of misconduct incidents per 10,000 officers for Arizona and California are 15.22 and 14.36 respectively. These statistics are based on cases heard in courts from 1989 to May 1999.

During the early 1990’s, the number of complaints regarding police brutality increased significantly in some major cities of the nation. Maintaining an appropriate balance between police respect for the integrity and privacy of individuals and the use of proper violence-reduction tactics is necessary to reduce police/citizen problems (Fyfe). Police brutality and corruption have been the cause of some of the darkest chapters in the history of law enforcement and community relations. For example, during the 1960’s the majority of city riots were caused by “unjustified police actions” and some of these outbreaks of violence were extremely severe (Lersch and Feagin). If violent law enforcement activities end with the death of civilians the results can be negative, not only to the affected communities, but also with the state. For this reason, crime geographers and other social scientists need to follow attentively these events:

Tennessee and Arkansas are also among the states with a high rate of police brutality cases, and these are parts of the nation that have large African American population clusters. According to Bass, “black people, particularly young black males, tend to have much worse experiences with police than do white Americans.” She examined important studies conducted during the 1950s about police violence, and found that the police felt excused from sanctions when they treated blacks aggressively because that specific racial group lacked political power during that time period. Holmes has maintained in his study of police brutality, that when interacting with African Americans, police still “feel they have to use force to gain respect.” And whites who “do complain of police brutality are usually poor.” The states that have high incidence of police misconduct cases, but did not have a significant minority population, were among the poorest in the nation. West Virginia and Kentucky are part of the group of states where police misconduct case rates are high and poverty is serious. It is particularly noteworthy that South Dakota has the highest rates of police malpractice court cases in the north; this is a state with some of the poorest communities of the nation located on Native American reservations. A substantial portion of the South Dakota cases looked at Native Americans (Holmes).

Law enforcement personnel working exclusively inside prisons are not the only officers that have perpetrated police abuse against women in this country. Gender is a factor that affects the occurrence of police malpractice outside correctional facilities. The Police/Citizen Violence Reduction project in southern Florida found that compared to female officers, male agent are four times more likely to stop female traffic violators (Maran). As with minority groups, female citizens can also be vulnerable to police misconduct, but unfortunately the USDOJ data does not offer adequate information about the issue.

Some topics in this essay:
Lersch Feagin, Acts Branch, Learsch Feagin, North Dakota, According Holmes, Americans Latino, Department Justice, Reduction Project, Holmes Fogelson, African Americans, law enforcement, police brutality, police malpractice, police misconduct, police officers, lersch feagin, civil rights, african americans, police abuse, officers killed, potentially violent situations, law enforcement community, law enforcement personnel, violent crime rates, occurrence police malpractice,