Cultivating Police Use of Force Perceptions through Cinema: Maintaining the Racial Divide (original) (raw)

Manufacturing white criminals: Depictions of criminality and violence on Law & Order

This study examines exposure to the police drama television genre and its impact on perceptions of crime and racial criminality. Content analyses of three seasons of Law & Order were examined to evaluate the show’s portrayal of race and crime compared to actual crime statistics for New York City during the same periods. A survey was also conducted to examine perceptions of personal safety and the influence of television’s depiction of race and crime. Results suggest whites are disproportionately portrayed as criminals five to eight times more often on police dramas compared to actual crime statistics for the city of New York, exposure to police dramas increases beliefs of threats to personal safety, and exposure to police dramas leads to elevated perceptions of white criminality among non-whites. Results provide additional support for cultivation theory and “Mean World Syndrome,” and implications for delimitation and racial distrust.

The Criminological Cultivation of African American Municipal Police Officers

Race and Justice, 2014

African American municipal police officers have been historically underrepresented and often face a double marginalization, arguably due to fellow officer and public perceptions. This study represents a first-step criminological cultivation analysis of the quantity and quality of African American municipal police officer depictions in the core cop film genre (1971–2011). Utilizing the unified film population identification methodology, 112 films were identified and examined to determine the overarching messages conveyed through the genre. Findings revealed that White officers were depicted in the lead or joint leading role in 89% (n ¼ 100) and African Americans in 19% (n ¼ 21) of films. However, White officers were predominantly depicted in a serious light unless sharing the lead with a minority, while African American officers were predominantly depicted in a comedic light. Further, the issue of double marginalization was rarely depicted. The potential implications of these portrayals on officer recruitment, retention, and perceived law enforcement legitimacy are discussed and second-step criminological cultivation studies to determine if a cultivation effect exists are proposed.

The Criminological Cultivation of African American Municipal Police Officers: Sambo or Sellout

African American municipal police officers have been historically underrepresented and often face a double marginalization, arguably due to fellow officer and public perceptions. This study represents a first-step criminological cultivation analysis of the quantity and quality of African American municipal police officer depictions in the core cop film genre (1971–2011). Utilizing the unified film population identification methodology, 112 films were identified and examined to determine the overarching messages conveyed through the genre. Findings revealed that White officers were depicted in the lead or joint leading role in 89% (n ¼ 100) and African Americans in 19% (n ¼ 21) of films. However, White officers were predominantly depicted in a serious light unless sharing the lead with a minority, while African American officers were predominantly depicted in a comedic light. Further, the issue of double marginalization was rarely depicted. The potential implications of these portrayals on officer recruitment, retention, and perceived law enforcement legitimacy are discussed and second-step criminological cultivation studies to determine if a cultivation effect exists are proposed.

Media Exposure and Racialized Perceptions of Inequities in Criminal Justice

Social Sciences, 2017

Does media exposure to salient criminological events exacerbate racialized perceptions of injustice? We examine whether closely following media coverage of the fatal encounter of George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin moderates racial and ethnic differences in opinion surrounding the event and the U.S. criminal justice system. Our analysis addresses several key aspects of the case: Whether Zimmerman would have been arrested sooner if Martin had been white, whether respondents felt Zimmerman's acquittal was justified, and whether there is racial bias against African Americans in the criminal justice system. Relying on national opinion surveys before and after Zimmerman's trial verdict, our findings support the racial gradient thesis by demonstrating that sustained exposure to racialized framing of the incident in the media affects Hispanics the most and hardens entrenched attitudes among African Americans relative to whites. The analysis supports the continuing relevance of the mass media in attitude formation.

Police Brutality, Over-Policing, and Mass Incarceration in African American Film

Journal of Black Studies, 2019

This article seeks to examine the role of the police in African American film. Looking at the last three decades of filmmaking, five films stand out as important examples for this study: Do the Right Thing, Boyz n the Hood, Set it Off, Training Day, and Get Out. These films are both consistent in the message regarding the police and African American communities, and are separated by time to demonstrate the distinct differences in how that message has been shown. An examination of the real-world relationship between the two groups is also studied, to better understand the accuracy of the films. The gendering of film and police brutality is a further discussion within the article in regard to the lack of female African American directors in Hollywood and the less frequently discussed police violence against African American women. These issues are addressed through a combination of film analysis and secondary source data on the police interaction and brutality in the African American ...

Violence Trending: How Socially Transmitted Content of Police Misconduct Impacts Reactions toward Police Among American Youth

The Emerald International Handbook of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse, 2021

Videos of police abuse are often spread through technology, raising questions around how perceptions of police are impacted by these images, especially for 18-24-year-olds who are constantly "logged on." Limited research investigates the impact of social media on attitudes toward police accounting for age and race. The present study utilizes 19 in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of urban college students who regularly use social media in order to understand how they have been impacted by this content. The findings suggest the necessity of using an intersectional framework to understand the impact of tech-witnessed violence. While no gender differences were uncovered, racial differences did surface. White participants described being minimally influenced by videos of police misconduct, rationalizing it as a "few bad apples." In contrast, participants of color, except those with family members in law enforcement, described being negatively impacted. Viral content contributed to negative opinions of police, emotional distress, and fears of victimization. Ultimately, videos of police brutality do not impact young populations equally. Instead, they are comparatively more harmful to young people of color who spend more time on social media, can envision themselves as the victims, and experience feelings of fear, despair, and anger after watching these videos.

Video, Popular Culture, and Police Excessive Force: The Elusive Narrative of Over-Policing

University of Chicago Legal Forum, 2019

Allegations of police brutality are generally credibility contests between the officer and the accuser, and thus their resolution hinges on pre-existing assumptions about what stories are credible. As long as aggressive policing is considered an aberration or a deserved response, legal accounts of unprovoked police violence will be considered incredible. This article explores the difficulties of overcoming the dominant story about policing and conveying the experience of living in an overpoliced community. It considers the successes and failures of video evidence (body cam, dash cam, and cell phone) in conveying this experience, and also the possibilities and limits of popular cultural representations-and specifically HBO's The Wire. I begin by examining the promise and limits of raw video footage as a counternarrative. Video evidence has helped galvanize public outrage, but at the same time the failures of video evidence to persuade legal decision makers have been striking. I then turn to The Wire, and to the question of media's potential to bridge the vast divide between police-saturated neighborhoods and the broader public view of police-civilian interactions. Though I do not revise my previous assessment that The Wire was "the greatest television series ever made," I argue that The Wire, for all its immersive attention to West Baltimore, did not really capture the experience of living in a police-occupied neighborhood in which one's every innocuous move can lead to a confrontation with police. The Wire was strong on the problem of under-policing, but it did not do justice to the problem of over-policing, or the experience of living with it. I conclude with thoughts about the role of data analytics, media, and storytelling in bridging these experiential divides.

The effect of a video-taped arrest on public perceptions of police use of force

In response to recent highly publicized violent encounters between the police and tile public, there has been a significant increase in research on police use ¢~force and citizen's perceptions qlthe police. Relatively little empirical research, though, has addressed the role of the media in shaping public perceptions of police use of forte. This article helps fill this void by examining the impact o['a cont~vversial. violent arrest captured on videotape by a local news team and widely broadcast on hwal television in Cincinnati. Using the Greater Cincinnati Sun'ey, bivariate and nudtivariate analyses are empho'ed to examine variations in perceptions of the reasonableness of the force used by police. Findings indicate that the videotaped arrest had a negative impact on citizens' perceptions of fi~rce used by police during arrest situations, but that the effect was substantially greater among non-Caucasians. Furthermore, over a ten-year period, non-Caucasians were consistently more likely than Caucasians to believe police used force excessively. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd 381 382 E. JEFFERIS et al.