Skip to main content
Article
Police Violence as Containment of Black Bodies During Urban Renewal: A Spatial Analysis of Civilian Deaths by Police in Florida
USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
  • Rebecca Johns, University of South Florida
  • Matthew Viera, University of South Florida
  • Barnali M Dixon, University of South Florida
SelectedWorks Author Profiles:

Barnali Dixon

Rebecca K. Johns

Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Abstract

This study presents a geospatial analysis of police killings within two areas in Florida over a twenty-year period. Fatalities were mapped against social and economic characteristics of neighborhoods to ascertain if police violence ending in civilian death was concentrated in areas with high-minority and low-income populations, and those areas in proximity to gentrifying neighborhoods. We evaluated the theory that police violence against minority residents serves as a process of containment and ultimately supports the continued generation of wealth by a specific sector of society through the process of gentrification. The cycle of destruction and renewal in the urban landscape is deeply intertwined with processes of capital accumulation, class differentiation, and racial subordination. Both the West Florida and Southeast Florida areas contained a significantly higher proportion of fatal encounters occurring within tracts that were eligible to gentrify than in tracts that were in the process of gentrifying. Fort Lauderdale in particular had little overlap despite containing concentrated hotspots of incidents in combination with high-minority and low–NSES tracts. This same pattern is apparent in the Lakeland area in west Florida. Our findings are consistent with Laniyonu's observation that police interactions tend to increase in tracts just outside of gentrified areas, but seldom within them.

URI
https://doi.org/10.1353/sgo.2023.a912267
Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Citation Information
Johns, R., Viera, M., & Dixon, B. (2023). Police Violence as Containment of Black Bodies during Urban Renewal: A Spatial Analysis of Civilian Deaths by Police in Florida. Southeastern Geographer 63(4), 386-417. https://doi.org/10.1353/sgo.2023.a912267.