The Influence of Race in Police-Civilian Interactions: A Content Analysis of Videotaped Interactions Taken During Cincinnati Police Traffic Stops (original) (raw)
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The public regularly encounter law enforcement. In an era of the Blacks Lives Matter movement and associated discord with law enforcement, understanding the contours of policepublic relations and its potential consequences are paramount. Using national level data of police stops, we attempt to identify factors that influence attitudes of respect and legitimacy toward the police. Findings reveal that, among other things, race impacts perceptions of law enforcement through the interracial characteristics of encounters, a context in which some citizens are more likely to question police legitimacy even after controlling for other salient factors. Policy considerations are discussed.
Stay Cool, Hang Loose, Admit Nothing: Race, Intergroup Contact, and Public-Police Relations
Basic and Applied …, 2007
Drawing on the contact hypothesis of Allport (1954) and Pettigrew (1998) we examined whether public-police contact, among White and Black university students in Britain, mediated between participant race and perceived racism of police and cooperation with police, respectively. Study 1 (N = 105) showed this to be the case for quality, but not quantity of contact. High-quality contact mitigated the negative effects of being Black on greater perceived racism and lower cooperation. Study 2 (N = 130) assessed a general view of police and desired closeness to police as dependent variables and investigated the moderating potential of racial identification. Higher-quality and lower quantity of contact were associated with a more positive view of police and higher desired closeness. Identification moderated the effects of race on quantity of contact, view of police, and desired closeness, with negative effects driven by high identification.
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Perennial conflict between police and black citizens has led to calls for greater representation of black officers, yet the presumption that black officers deliver better treatment to-and garner positive reactions from-black citizens has not received sufficient empirical testing. The present examination focusses on the use of force incident, given the symbolism inherent in this encounter. Drawing from prior research and deference exchange theory, this study examines the effects of officer and suspect race in predicting police use of force and suspect resistance. Our findings reveal that white officers are more coercive toward black suspects, but black officers' force usage is unaffected by suspect race. Conversely, officer race does not predict resistance among white or black suspects. Results are discussed in light of implications for theory, police-black relations and police practices.
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Researchers suggest that as public scrutiny and video recording of violent/tumultuous police encounters increase, police would back away from proactive enforcement, resulting in an increase in crime-the Ferguson Effect. Recent scholarship refined these concerns over police disengagement with the study of de-policing, while other scholars explored police selflegitimacy, in order to explain law enforcement behavior, given the immediacy and ubiquity of social media and digital communication. This study surveyed 792 law enforcement officers from 10 different police agencies in the United States, to ascertain if police officers' personal and contextual characteristics influence their decision to either take enforcement action (i.e., summons or arrest) or extend discretion (i.e., let them go) to the people they interact with during minor offenses. Respondents were presented with six vignettes, which included cars stops, public demonstrations, and street fights. The first three scenarios established a behavioral baseline for law enforcement action, while the next three scenarios had the added variable of presenting challenges to the officer's authority: cell phone recording, verbal challenge, or a passive challenge (e.g., jotting down name, badge number, etcetera). Respondents were v provided open fields in the survey to explain their enforcement decisions. Logistic regression testing found significance between challenging law enforcement and the resulting enforcement decision. The presence of cell phones recording police-public interactions will often not end in enforcement. Verbal and passive challenges however, will result in the officer taking enforcement action. When police are dealing with members of minority communities they are likely to extend discretion 65% of the time. Enforcement action taken for teenage offenders is about 49%. Testing for intersectionality demonstrated significant relationships for race and gender, that would not be readily discernable with traditional variable designations. This study concludes with a policy recommendation based on the New York City Police Department's recruitment strategies to address one of the primary concerns in policing-effective recruitment policy to create tomorrows equitable and inclusive police departments.
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Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 2008
Minority racial and ethnic groups often view themselves as targets of abusive treatment at the hands of the police. Although racial variation in public assessments of the police in the United States has been amply documented in past research, less research has explored the sources of these differences at the intersection of demographic, interactional, and ecological levels. This article examines the role of each factor in shaping citizens' perceptions of police misconduct, racial differences in these perceptions, and the reasons underlying them. The locus of the study is also important. Most research on police-community relations has been conducted in cities whose populations and police departments are majority White in composition, despite the growing number of minority-White cities. The present study draws on data from residents of a majority-Black city with a majority-Black police department: Washington, DC. The findings contribute to our understanding of policing in such underresearched cities.