Implicit Bias Lesson

Course Overview

Implicit bias describes the automatic association people make between groups of people and stereotypes about those groups. Under certain conditions, those automatic associations can influence behavior—making people respond in biased ways even when they are not explicitly prejudiced.

In the context of criminal justice and community safety, implicit bias has been shown to have significant influence in the outcomes of interactions between police and citizens. While conscious, “traditional” racism has declined significantly in recent decades, research suggests that “implicit attitudes may be better at predicting and/or influencing behavior than self-reported explicit attitudes.”   As with all types of bias, implicit bias can distort one’s perception and subsequent treatment either in favor of or against a given person or group.

In this course, we will also explore race relations in United States history.  Institutionalized racism and its effect on the criminal justice system will be discussed.  Impartial policing in the 21^st century will be addressed as well as community relations.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this module student should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of race relations and their impact on policing practices, to include:
  • Summarize race and policing in the U.S. in historical context. Discuss the ongoing influence of race relations, strategies to reconcile past injustices, and the importance of fair and impartial policing.
  • Identify policing practices that have historically alienated and angered disadvantaged communities of color, and how we can address historically unjust laws and policies.
• Demonstrate an understanding of implicit and explicit bias, to include:
  • Explain the difference between implicit and explicit bias.
  • Discuss how fear and bias influence officer behavior and police-community relations.
  • Identify your own implicit bias and strategies that can reduce the negative influence of bias.
• Demonstrate an understanding of impartial policing, to include:
  • Describe institutional racism and other forms of bias in the U.S. in a historical context, and their effect on culture, justice, crime and law.
  • Discuss law enforcement practices that reduce bias and positively influence community relations.
  • Reflect on your individual practices and how to apply impartial policing practices in your community.

Instructor:  Christopher Hoina, FBI NA # 222 ~ Director, Criminal Justice Studies

Christopher Hoina, Sr. (ret. Cary PD) is an alumnus of the FBI National Academy, he received his Master’s degree from NC State University and his Bachelor’s at Shaw University.  He is the co-founder of the Institute for Credible Leadership Development and serves on the executive board for the International Academy of Public Safety.  Chris is also the co-founder of the North Carolina Public Safety Leadership Academy at Wake Tech.  Chris has served as Faculty and Director of Criminal Justice studies at Campbell University in Research Triangle Park.

He has 25 years of law enforcement experience; from patrol officer to team commander.  During his tenure as a police officer he served as supervisor within the following commands: Training, Patrol Operations, Criminal Investigations, Juvenile Investigations, School Resource Officers, Crisis Negotiation, Community Services, Crime Prevention, D.A.R.E., and Crisis Intervention.  Chris has an extensive teaching record in both classroom and on-line.  He has taught at the Justice Academy, Community College, and University level.  He has taught a variety of topics to include Hazardous Materials, Bias Based Profiling, Hate Crimes, Crisis Intervention, Juvenile Minority Sensitivity, Juvenile Investigations, Crisis Negotiations, Crime Scene Investigations, Crime Prevention, School Resource Officer and Implicit Bias.  For the past several years his focus has been on leadership development and self-improvement for criminal justice professionals. Chris is the co-author of the book the Moral Compass for Law Enforcement Professionals, and the essay titled Virtues of Magnanimous Officers.