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Is the Israel-Hamas war deepening U.S. inter-ethnic hate?
Houston Style Magazine
Oct. 16, 2023

Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and criminal justice professor emeritus at CSU San Bernardino, was one of the experts who participated in an Oct. 13 Ethnic Media Services briefing to discuss the Israel-Hamas war’s roots, what it means for Jewish and Muslim U.S. communities confronting increased hate, and how inter-ethnic U.S. violence is deepening in response to the international violence.

Levin said the U.S. has seen an increase in hate crimes over recent years, hitting a record reported number of 10,840 in 2021 with a population representation of 91.1% per the FBI.

While the current war “is indeed a political dispute,” said Levin, “in article seven of Hamas’ charter, they say the Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims kill the Jews. We’ve also had similar statements by Hezbollah and others … Jews not distinguished by nationality.” Thus, he continued, we can expect this religious violence to be reflected in U.S. attacks.

Experiment on camera perspective bias in videos of police-citizen encounters
Journal of Experimental Criminology

Nerea Marteache (criminal justice) was part of a team that published a study on perspective bias in the use of videos recording police-citizen encounters (law enforcement use of body-worn cameras and citizens’ videos in such encounters). From the introduction: “In this report, we describe an experiment to test camera perspective bias in videos of a police-citizen traffic encounter. Traffic encounters are the most common contacts most people have with police Tapp & Davis, 2022). We reasoned that a routine traffic encounter is well-suited to isolate the effects of camera perspective by limiting impacts of other features such as the demeanor of the driver/police dyad. With professional assistance, we produced a video recorded from three camera perspectives: police, driver, and bystander. Based on a sample of 830 participants recruited for an online survey through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), we examined how the camera perspective might affect perceptions of police behavior and legitimacy during the encounter.”

Body-Worn Cameras and Settlements
Justice Evaluation Journal

Zachary Powell (criminal justice) published a study on law enforcement officers’ use of body-worn cameras and civilian complaints of police misconduct. “Much of the available evidence indicates that BWCs (body worn cameras) reduce civilian complaints, use-of-force, and other police misbehavior,” the abstract reads. “However, there is a tendency for existing research to study minor forms of misbehavior rather than serious misconduct. This study focuses on examining how settlements, a proxy of serious police misconduct, changed with BWC adoption and are an important outcome to study as they may correspond with financial and litigation burdens for police departments.”

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