Police Killings Hit Black and Hispanic Students' Grades and College Prospects

Nearly 1,000 officer-involved killings occur each year in the United States. This analysis documents large and racially disparate effects of these events on the educational and psychological well-being of Los Angeles public high school students.

📍 How Exposure Is Measured

Exploits hyperlocal variation in how close students live to a police killing to isolate the effects of direct exposure. The identification strategy compares students who live nearer versus farther from a fatal police incident while focusing on short- and longer-term outcomes.

📊 What Was Measured and Found

• Persistent decreases in grade point average (GPA) following nearby police killings.
• Increased incidence of emotional disturbance among exposed students.
• Lower rates of high school completion and college enrollment after exposure.

🔎 Who Is Affected

• Effects are driven entirely by Black and Hispanic students.
• The racialized impacts arise specifically in response to police killings of other minorities.
• Effects are largest for incidents involving unarmed individuals.

📈 Why It Matters

These findings link local police violence to measurable declines in academic performance, mental-health indicators, and long-term educational attainment for minority students in an urban school district. The results highlight a pathway through which policing practices can exacerbate racial disparities in education and life chances.