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Table 1 PHCRP versus conventional view of traffic stop frameworks

From: Public health critical race praxis at the intersection of traffic stops and injury epidemiology

Principlea

Affiliated focusa

Definitiona

Conventional approach

PHCRP approach

1. Race consciousness

All

Deep awareness of one’s racial position; awareness of racial stratification processes operating in colorblind contexts

"Color blind" traffic stop interactions based on "objective" measures of crime and universal application of law. Race and of officer, driver, and passengers are irrelevant, as are demographics of neighborhoods, agencies, and political representation. Ignores existing stratification by race (e.g., segregation, income disparities, power and representation disparities, infrastructure investments) that further feed traffic crash and stop disparities

Understand role of individual race identities in decision making and interactions, e.g., internalized superiority and inferiority in implicitly and explicitly biasing interpersonal interactions. Acknowledge highly discretionary application of law and disconnect from measures of public health impact. Understand organization and neighborhood-level identity and demographic dynamics. Acknowledge and act equitably (not objectively) given racially asymmetrical distribution of stratifications (e.g., segregation, income disparities, power and representation, infrastructure investments). Adopt actively anti-racism frameworks

2. Primacy of racialization

Contemporary racialization

The fundamental contribution of racial stratification to societal problems; the central focus of CRT scholarship on explaining racial phenomena

Framing racial disparities as negative collateral byproducts instead of primary consequences of policing. Defensiveness on accusations of racial bias in interpersonal actions or decision making or when challenged by disparities in outcomes (e.g., differences in stop, search, etc. rates)

Acknowledge primacy of racialized policing, especially war on drugs and modern-day treatment of epidemics and poverty. Center histories of White supremacist law setting and the primary effectiveness of racism as an organizing suppression strategy. Contrast conventional frameworks with CRT frameworks for building study designs and interpreting results

3. Race as a social construct

Contemporary racialization, conceptualization and measurement

Significance that derives from social, political, and historical forces

Race is only conceived as an immutable, self-identified, biological construct. Race is synonymous with phenotype. No discussion of place- and time-specific changing definitions of race, self- and other-ascription of racial identity. No discussion of strengths and limitations of categorizing diverse people's phenotypes, cultural and language experiences, self- and other-ascribed identities, ancestry, etc., in limited race-ethnicity boxes. No discussion of political forces (capitalism, White supremacy) that drive disparate treatment by race

Acknowledge nuanced dynamics in assessing race, including place-specific passing (e.g., as White non-Hispanic), self- or other-identification of race-ethnicity, and the changing social definitions of race categories. Describe the legal treatment and protection of race and disparities juxtaposed against polices to promote White supremacy explicitly and implicitly. Contextualize traffic stop programs in decades of racism in general and law enforcement racist policies in particular: e.g., historical and present-day racialized war on drugs, enforcement of land use decisions, social control and broken-window policing

4. Gender as a social construct

Contemporary norms of masculinity, conceptualization and measurement

Significance of gender constructions that derive from social, political, and historical forces

Ignores contemporary masculine culture norms of officers and agencies, presenting them as gender-less or gender-neutral. Ignores gender demographic dynamics in driving. Ignores the place-specific, localized construction of gender norms and demographic distributions through policy enforcement (e.g., arrest of Black men for non-violent crimes, specific driving distributions)

Names, interrogates, and may act on masculine cultures aspects of enforcement: lone wolf policing, hierarchies, officer resistance to community authority, independence, binary thinking, production and individual advancement over community relationships. Gender-specific analyses of both drivers and officers, with critical discussion of measurement. Place-level analyses that acknowledge localized gender cultures and intersection of gender and race

5. Ordinariness of racism

Contemporary racialization

Racism is embedded in the social fabric of society

Racism is framed as a rare event between individuals (e.g., officer and driver), instead of a multi-level, pervasive oppressive force through history that produces experiences at all levels, including micro-aggressions, explicit racial discrimination, implicit bias, institutional policies, cultural preferences, and local, state, and national policies

Racism and its products (including traffic stop disparities) are discussed not only as (common) events, but a pervasive system that disallows the possibility of neutral interactions or policy and demands an explicitly anti-racist approach. Focus pulls back from single opportunity for racism (e.g., individual officer bias) to multiple opportunities for individuals, agency policies, and other related content areas (e.g., driving, poverty, representation) that interact at the nexus of traffic stops

6. Structural determinism

Contemporary racialization

The fundamental role of macro-level forces in driving and sustaining inequities across time and contexts; the tendency of dominant group members and institutions to make decisions or take actions that preserve existing power hierarchies

Sole focus of disparities is behavioral: behavior of the officer (e.g., explicit or implicit bias) and behavior of the driver (whether any behavior of could remotely, under any law, be rationale for a stop). No treatment of macro-level forces like income disparities, historical and current community disinvestment, patrol priorities or distribution. Agency and officer denial of responsibility to any structural causes in lieu of a tunnel-vision focus on whether a very specific interaction, separated from its contexts, could be rationalized. Focus on the behavioral is framed as objective, colorblind application of law and policy, even history reveals they were not constructed objectively

Analysis of traffic stops expand beyond the immediate and behavioral to institutions (e.g., law enforcement agencies), accounting for other structural disparities and may include multi-level components. Acknowledgement of pervasiveness of structural determinism, acknowledges and moves past defensiveness to wider conception of collective responsibility (especially parts of oppression that are no one person's job, e.g., a racism not requiring racists). White dominant institutions and white people in particular pay particular attention to disparate and compounding impacts, not just localized intentions. Institutions are directly accountable to a broad diversity of other communities and institutions, given the interrelatedness of structural determinism

7. Social construction of knowledge

Knowledge production

The claim that established knowledge within a discipline can be reevaluated using antiracism modes of analysis

Data collected on traffic stop forms (including race-ethnicity and gender identifiers), associating driving data, law enforcement administrative data (e.g., court fines and fees, arrest data) are all treated as objective with known, external meanings. Little attention given to hidden dynamics or limitations data generation process. Conventional frameworks are treated uncritically as universal, immutable, and ahistorical, without an origin in time, place, people, or power

Quantitative data, qualitative data, and implicit and explicit frameworks that drive meaning are treated as if they have social origins and are socially mutable, especially through a power lens. This includes traffic stop questions like why as many traffic stops occur as they do, when did those efforts start, and how have they changed; what do traffic stops prevent, when did we come to believe this,what is and isn't measured and who decided that, and what evidence exists for it;  and racism questions like what has race-ethnicity meant in the past or in different places, how does racism operate now, and how might anti-racist action operate here and now

8. Critical approaches

Knowledge production, action

A social psychological approach to develop a comprehensive understanding of how individual biases develop prejudice and discrimination in social interaction

Knowledge produced is done so uncritically, with little attention to origin, deeper meanings, flaws, or implications. No consideration of data, information, knowledge, or wisdom hierarchy and how knowledge does or does not spread to others or deepen over time. Narratives are simple and likely separated from any considerations of shared responsibility, historical meaning, or possibility of wrong-doing on part of officers or government—excepting perhaps "bad apples" that are (again, uncritically) known to be explicitly racist

Data, assumptions, knowledge, and actions are all examined critically, particularly with an anti-racist lens. Agencies and governments share responsibility for not just enforcing, but perpetuating racism. Anti-racist agencies continually look for places to take improved action or stop action entirely if damaging to marginalized groups. Critical voices from community members and outside agencies are not ostracized and "othered," but welcomed and integrated. Data not collected, not just data collected, are considered critically

9. Intersectionality

Conceptualization and measurement, action

The interlocking and multiplicative approach to co-occurring social categories (e.g., race and gender) and the social structures that maintain them

Failure to consider the interacting dynamics of racism alongside sexism, homophobia, and capitalism—e.g., implicit and explicit suggestions that race and racism operate the same for all people using or ascribed a certain identity / label). Failure to adopt a multilevel approach to addressing disparities—e.g., focusing exclusively on implicit bias training and behavioral interventions

Address white supremacist culture components alongside (toxic) masculinity cultures and other privileges and marginalized identities. Act from a multi-tiered approach when addressing disparities, considering not only personal, but institutional and cultural levels of actions, e.g., considering patrol patterns and neighboring agency practices. Integrate traffic stop program interventions alongside anti-racist public health interventions in other areas, such as overdose and mental health response

10. Disciplinary self-critique

Action

The systematic examination by members of a discipline of its conventions and impacts on the broader society

Critical voices in local government, public health, and law enforcement are suppressed in favor of a united front. Exceptional stories and counter examples are unwelcomed. History is generally ignored, especially any history that paints a discipline in a negative light (e.g., racist history of policing, public health, and local government social control)

Critical voices are esteemed, rewarded, and developed. Critical frameworks are included in required training and treated as a conveyable skillset, not a magic alignment. History of intentional and unintentional racism within the discipline are taught with a focus on anti-racist action and change

11. Voice

Knowledge production, action

Prioritizing the perspectives of marginalized persons; privileging the experiential knowledge of outsiders within

Law enforcement is the sole voice in determining programs and producing knowledge about those programs, perhaps with some minimal accountability to local government. Marginalized population experiences can be "swept under the rug" because they may be relatively few. White and middle-class experiences are taken as the overall norm, driving attention away from experiences of marginalized groups. Exceptional events are treated as necessary sacrifices to maintain otherwise effective traffic stop programs. Only law enforcement determines whether programs work, their efficiencies, and the benchmarks of success

The stories and experiences (individually and collectively) of people who are stopped are prioritized, particularly those who are most marginalized (people of color, justice involved populations, non-English speakers, etc.). These communities lead determinations of not only how analysis is done, but how stop programs operate. In short, individuals and communities self-determine how they want to be patrolled and policed, or at least co-design stop programs with local agencies. The voice of those who are injured (e.g., by traffic crashes, assaults, or injuries from the justice system) are held up

  1. Columns marked with (a) are reprinted verbatim from Gilbert and Ray (2015)