Understanding police use of lethal force requires the collection of reliable data. Due to bias present in police-use-of-lethal-force databases, researchers typically triangulate using multiple data sources to compensate for this bias; however, triangulation is restricted when the bias present in each database is unknown. This study investigates three government-funded and three independent police-use-of-lethal-force databases to identify methodological sources of bias present in the major U.S. data-collection systems. Bias was coded based on nine categories, including misclassification bias, broad conceptualization, narrow conceptualization, overlap bias, coverage bias, voluntary response bias, observer bias, gatekeeping bias, and self-report response bias. Findings suggest that all six databases had at least three different types of methodological bias present. Generally, public, government-sponsored databases exhibit bias through data self-reporting by law enforcement and varying victim race determination methods. Private databases reveal bias through media-based reporting and the triangulation of data from multiple sources, which is further complicated by lack of transparency in the databases' design and administrative procedures. All six databases have a unique position to the State, which should also inform researcher data selection. I argue that selecting data sources that complement each other based on these identified biases will produce a more complete image of police-use-of-lethal-force and enhance finding accuracy in future research. / Master of Science / Understanding incidents where a civilian dies due to the actions of police officers requires the collection of reliable data. Due to bias—flaws in the data collection methods or data presentation—which lead to varying results when using different databases, researchers typically use multiple data sources to make up for these flaws; however, this method is restricted when the bias present in each database is unknown. This study investigates three government-funded and three independent police-use-of-lethal-force databases to identify sources of bias present in the major U.S. data-collection systems. Findings suggest that all six databases had at least three different types of flaws present. Generally, public, government-sponsored databases exhibit bias through police self-reporting lethal force, where an officer's department reports the officer's actions and there is no individual or group outside of the police reporting these incidents. Additionally, there is a flaw in how police record the race of a victim, who dies through police use of lethal force; Varying procedures in how race is recorded, whether recorded based on the officer's opinion or where a victim self-reports their own race prior to death on a government data system such as the Department of Motor Vehicles, also impacts the race data included in public databases. Private databases reveal bias through collecting incident data from news reports and using data from multiple sources such as law enforcement reports, medical examiner reports, and media reports simultaneously; this is further complicated by lack of transparency in the databases' design and administrative procedures, where there are no documents detailing the steps databases take in collecting and presenting data. All six databases have a unique position to the U.S. Government, where some are funded by the Government and where some are motivated by recent high profile police killings, which should impact researcher data selection. Ideally, the databases used should hold multiple perspectives or positions to the Government to provide an more complete image of lethal force. I argue that selecting data sources that complement each other based on these identified biases will produce a more complete image of police-use-of-lethal-force and enhance finding accuracy in future research.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:34:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariana Almirao de Sousa.pdf: 1210299 bytes, checksum: 89e19cc40ed820eb7e2c0390a6f6fd12 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-17 / Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie / The aim of this study was to evaluate the laws state intervention in family harvest, focusing on families headed by women, families formed by homosexual, male single parenthood, multiparental families and, finally, relations with family benefits. In the present scenario, the family has become an important means of state intervention for disclosure amounts considered valid to be perpetuated, since it is within the family that human beings have the first contacts with what is considered acceptable in a society. Thus, this thesis, first time, aims to discuss the ways in which a State may intervene in society, for it will be studied both liberal ideology, as the social and paternalistic positions. Thus, there will be an analysis of the appropriate way to conduct interference, the propitious moments and social situations which require protection. Bearing in mind that the intervention may seek to develop full citizens and conscious, respectful of diversity and opposite positions, provided there is respect for social differences, beliefs and genres, increasing levels of education, and then spread the values of citizenship. Subsequently, the work will focus on interference made in family groupings, will be a study of the forms of interference occurring, it is adequate and what would be the most effective means to assist families to develop and have their rights, their ways of life and individuality protected by the democratic rule of law. / O objetivo do presente estudo será avaliar as intervenções estatais legislativas na seara familiar, tendo como foco as famílias chefiadas por mulheres, as famílias formadas por homoafetivos, a monoparentalidade masculina, famílias pluriparentais e, por fim, as relações com benefícios familiares. Tendo em mente a instituição familiar é um importante meio de intervenção do Estado para incentivar valores considerados como válidos de serem perpetuados, uma vez que é no seio familiar que os seres humanos têm os primeiros contatos com o que é esperado para viver em sociedade. Sendo assim, a presente dissertação, em um primeiro momento, tem como objetivo discutir sobre as formas pelas quais um Estado poderá intervir na sociedade e, para isso, serão estudados tanto a ideologia liberal como os posicionamentos sociais. Nesse sentido, será feita uma análise do caminho adequado para realizar intervenções, os momentos propícios, bem como as situações sociais as quais necessitam de tutela, tendo em mente que devem almejar o desenvolvimento de cidadãos plenos e conscientes, respeitadores da diversidade e de posições contrárias, por meio do respeito às diferenças sociais, de crenças e gêneros, aumentando os índices de educação para, depois, difundir valores de cidadania. Posteriormente o trabalho focará na intervenção realizada em grupamentos familiares, investigando as formas pelas quais ocorrem, se surtem efeito e qual seria o meio mais efetivo para auxiliar famílias a se desenvolverem e terem seus direitos, seus modos de vida e individualidade protegidos pelo Estado Democrático de Direito.