This talk by Dr. Paul Hirschfield, Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, as he addresses the core question of why the United States towers over other developed nations in our rate of fatal police violence. Comparative methods suggests several factors (gun violence, minority gasistreatment, police training, and deadly force laws) that not only explain why the United States stands out internationally but also are useful, alone or in combination, for explaining international variation in police violence more broadly.

Dr. Paul Hirschfield is an Affiliated Professor in the Program in Criminal Justice, as well as Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University in 2003. His research has focused on a broad range of topics pertaining to crime and justice with an emphasis on their relationship to youth, education, and social policy.  Dr. Hirschfield’s work has appeared in Criminology, Sociology of Education, Theoretical Criminology, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and others.