Subordination and Violence against State Control Agents: Testing Political Explanations for Lethal Assaults against the Police

This study examines the relationships between economic and political subordination and the use of lethal force against state officials charged with controlling the underclass. More specifically, it uses count estimators to assess the factors that lead to felonious killings of police officers in the largest U.S. cities. Economic and racial inequality and the presence of a black mayor are used to assess economic and political subordination. Threat effects are measured by the percentage of blacks and by growth in this percentage. With violent crime and social disorganization indicators held constant, the results show that police killings are most likely in cities with the largest differences in black-white resources, but the presence of a black mayor reduces these killings. In a supplemental analysis, the same factors explain the more common injurious assaults against officers. The findings suggest that forms of political subordination increase the probability of violence directed against the street-level state-control agents.