Police Misconduct,Media Coverage,and Public Perceptions of Racial Profiling: An Experiment

The purpose of this study was: (1) to assess the impact of an incident of racial profiling on residents’ attitudes about profiling; and (2) to examine the effects of exposure to a video clip of deliberation about the incident on residents’ beliefs about the causes of profiling. All residents, White and minority, were less likely to believe that Chicago police officers engaged in profiling after the incident. These findings suggest that attitudes about the prevalence of racial profiling are susceptible to the manner in which the media construct incidents of police misconduct. Exposure to the video clip was not related to differences in residents’ beliefs about the causes of profiling, but was related to differences in perceptions of the dangerousness of traffic stops. The findings highlight the need for more research on how media constructions of police misconduct influence attitudes about profiling and impact community–police relations.     

Trust is hard to come by: Disentangling the influence of structural characteristics and race on perceptions of trust in the police in a major Southern County

The current study will add to the literature on public attitudes toward law enforcement by assessing the individual and contextual-level predictors of one of the key concepts in police legitimacy literature: trust. Examining individuals nested within zip code results showed a significant equalizing effect of structural resource deprivation on both White and Black respondents' perceptions of trust in the police. Additionally, results found respondents who perceived racial profiling to be widespread had a universally decreased likelihood of having trust in the police, and these disparities were exacerbated as structural resource deprivation increased.     

Race,Ethnicity, and Perceived Minority Police Presence: Examining Perceptions of Criminal Injustice Among Los Angeles Residents

Although the conventional wisdom holds that increasing the number of minority officers will enhance residents' perceptions of police and the criminal justice system, further systematic investigation of this hypothesis may be needed. Building on the group‐position thesis, the representative bureaucracy theory, and prior research, this study investigates whether perceived minority police presence within residents' neighborhoods affects residents' perceptions of criminal injustice, whether this effect is more pronounced for minority residents and in minority neighborhoods, and whether perceived minority police presence has a stronger effect on perceptions of criminal injustice for minority residents in more integrated and white neighborhoods than minority residents in minority neighborhoods. Analyses of data collected from Los Angeles, CA, show that residents perceive a lower level of criminal injustice when they report that officers in their neighborhoods are not white‐dominated, and this finding is not dependent on the respondent's race/ethnicity or the racial/ethnic composition of the neighborhood. In addition, perceived minority police presence seems to have a weak to no effect on residents' perceptions of criminal injustice for Hispanic communities. We discuss these findings and their implications for theory, research, and policy.     

Race,Immigration, and Policing: Chinese Immigrants’ Satisfaction with Police

A considerable body of research focuses on racial and ethnic minorities’ perceptions of police, yet non-Black, non-Hispanic minority groups, Asians in particular, are largely overlooked. Meanwhile, despite a fast growing immigrant population and the increasing demand on local police to enforce immigration law, research on police–immigrant relations remains limited. Using data from over 400 Chinese immigrants, this study examines the issues of race/ethnicity, immigration, and policing with a focal concern on Chinese immigrants’ attitudes toward police. Results indicate that the majority of Chinese immigrants rate police positively in overall performance and specific areas of effectiveness, integrity, and demeanor. Both universal and immigrant-specific factors are important predictors of immigrants’ attitudes. Chinese immigrants’ evaluations of police are not only affected by exposure to media coverage of police misconduct, neighborhood conditions, and city context, but also are intertwined with their opinions of their home country police and perceptions of US immigration authorities.     

Juror Perceptions of the Legitimacy of Legal Authorities and Decision Making in Criminal Cases

Literature on trust in legal authorities and institutions demonstrates that trust affects individual behavior, yet there is little research on whether attitudes toward legal authorities such as the police or courts influence juror behavior as a third party assessing evidence and determining legal outcomes for others. Additionally, the literature on juror decision making confirms that juror race is an important predictor of juror decisions, but explanations for differences among racial groups are not clear. Since minority groups hold less favorable attitudes toward legal authorities generally, legitimacy theory may help explain racial differences in decision making among jurors. Using data from nearly 2,000 jurors in felony trials, this research utilizes multilevel modeling techniques to find that jurors' trust in legal authorities is related to juror outcomes, though the effect of juror trust and confidence in the police is opposite that of juror trust and confidence in the courts. Additionally, juror race conditions the effect of trust in police and courts. Trust is a stronger predictor of both perceptions of evidence and voting for black jurors than it is for white jurors.     

Ethnic identity and attitudes toward the police among African American juvenile offenders

Although there is a knowledge base regarding theoretical and empirical research on attitudes toward the police, this line of research has not fully examined the sources of such attitudes, and in particular the extent to which attitudes toward the police are influenced by ethnic identity. The present study examined the role of ethnic identity in African American adolescent offenders' perceptions of general police discrimination, direct police contact, procedural justice, and police legitimacy. Analyses showed that youth with a stronger sense of ethnic identity perceived more police discrimination but reported more positive beliefs about police legitimacy. The findings underscore the importance of considering processes that may make legal socialization experiences more salient for adolescents, and demonstrate the complex role that ethnic identity plays in relation to discrimination.     

POLICE RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: SITUATIONS INVOLVING VETERANS EXHIBITING SIGNS OF MENTAL ILLNESS*

Drawing on attribution theory, research on police discretion, and public attitudes toward mental illness, we examine attributional processes in police decision making in response to domestic violence situations involving veterans and nonveterans with signs of mental illness. Using data from experimental vignettes varying veteran status, victim injury, and suspect compliance administered to a sample of 309 police officers, the results indicate that 1) veterans are perceived as less responsible for troublesome behavior but more dangerous than nonveterans, 2) suspects’ veteran status has a significant effect on officers’ preference for mental health treatment versus arrest, and 3) part of the effect of veteran status on officer response is mediated by internal and external attributions for problematic behavior and by perceptions of dangerousness. The study empirically demonstrates countervailing processes in police decision making—recognition of the causes for troublesome behavior and the need for mental health treatment on the one hand and concern for community safety and enforcing the law on the other.     

Police training strategies and the role perceptions of police recruits

There has been much debate regarding basic police training and its effect on the attitudes of police recruits. Some critics argue that academy training creates negative attitudes in police recruits that favor arrest and crime attack orientations. The data presented in this article suggest that police recruits from a large urban police training program possess attitudes unfavorable toward crime attack or strict enforcement policing roles. The article examines a Los Angeles Police Department recruit training class, and the perceptions these recruits have toward selected policing roles. The study suggests police recruits do not perceive their role as simply being one of crime attack and strict enforcement.     

PERCEPTIONS OF RACIAL PROFILING: RACE,CLASS, AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE*

Racial profiling by the police has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years, but we know little about the extent of the problem and even less about public perceptions of profiling. This article analyzes recent national survey data on citizens' views of racial profiling. We find that both race and personal experience with profiling are strong predictors of attitudes toward profiling and that, among blacks, social class affects views of the prevalence and acceptability of the practice. The findings on social class point to the need for further investigation and explanation of class influences on evaluations of the police.     

Students and the police in Ghana: mixed feelings

This study examines university students’ perceptions of the Ghana police service in contrast with general population studies that explain citizens’ attitudes toward the police. Two research questions guided this study: (1) What are university students’ perceptions of the police? and (2) What factors influence university students’ perceptions of the police? Using data collected from one large university in Ghana between the months of December 2012 and February 2013, the study found several intriguing findings. First, students have moderate trust in the Ghana police. Second, students critically evaluated police procedural fairness and effectiveness. Multivariate regression models revealed that vicarious experiences of police corruption, marital status, level of education, and ethnicity predicted students’ trust in the police as well as influenced their perceptions of fairness and effectiveness. Policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Modelling public confidence of the police: how perceptions of the police differ between neighborhoods in a city

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a survey evaluating the views of 1322 residents of York, UK around their perceptions and attitudes towards crime, their local area, and the police with the aim of understanding the main factors affecting public confidence within the city. The study uses Structural Equation Modelling to develop several models which are evaluated to examine whether differences in public confidence in the police exist across disparate local communities with varying degrees of neighbourhood perceptions. The results indicate that even in a relatively small city such as York, the factors which most affect an individual’s views of the police can vary wildly depending on an individual’s perceptions regarding their local area. The results suggest that policing strategies aimed at improving public confidence must be altered depending on the views residents hold regarding their local communities.     

Citizens' perceptions of police misconduct: Race and neighborhood context

One of the most controversial issues in policing concerns allegations of police abuse of members of minority groups. This article examines African Americans' and whites' perceptions and experiences of three types of police misconduct: unjustified street stops of citizens, verbal abuse, and use of excessive force. The study is based on in-depth interviews with residents of three neighborhoods in Washington, DC, which vary in racial and class profile. Findings support the thesis that neighborhood context conditions residents' attitudes and reported experiences with the police. Residents of both the white and the black middle-class neighborhoods were less likely to perceive or experience police abuse in their neighborhoods than were residents of the black lower-class neighborhood. Neighborhood class position thus may be an important, but often overlooked, factor shaping citizens' attitudes and experiences. In encounters with the police outside the neighborhood, however, individuals' race becomes salient. Implications are discussed for understanding the role of race, class, and neighborhood context in police-citizen relations.     

Global and Neighborhood Attitudes Toward the Police: Differentiation by Race,Ethnicity and Type of Contact

This study focused on a series of hypotheses regarding residents’ attitudes toward the police: (1) residents’ attitudes toward the police are better represented by a two-dimensional model that differentiates global perceptions of the police from assessments of the police in the respondents’ neighborhood; (2) the structure of residents’ attitudes toward the police is different for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos; (3) direct experiences with the police in the respondents’ neighborhood will be more strongly associated with the respondents’ assessment of police in their neighborhood than global perceptions of the police; and (4) the influence of direct experiences with the police will be stronger for African Americans and Latinos than for Whites. Results based on structural equation modeling offer strong support for the need to differentiate between global and neighborhood perceptions of the police. The underlining measurement structure of attitudes toward the police was similar for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos. However, the relationship between global and neighborhood attitudes was stronger for African Americans and Latinos. Negative contact with the police was associated with both negative global and neighborhood assessments of the police. Non-negative contact was associated with positive neighborhood perceptions of the police; however, only when it occurred within the neighborhood. The influence of direct experiences with the police (both inside and outside the neighborhood) was similar for Whites, African Americans, and Latinos.     

CYNICAL STREETS: NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL PROCESSES AND PERCEPTIONS OF CRIMINAL INJUSTICE*

Studies have found that African Americans are more likely to perceive racial biases in the criminal justice system than are those from other racial groups. There is a limited understanding of how neighborhood social processes affect variation in these perceptions. This study formulates a series of hypotheses focused on whether perceived racial biases in the criminal justice system or perceptions of injustice vary as a function of levels of moral and legal cynicism as well as of adverse police–citizen encounters. These hypotheses are tested with multilevel regression models applied to data from a sample of 689 African Americans located in 39 neighborhoods. Findings from the regression models indicate that the positive association between structural disadvantage and perceptions of injustice is accounted for by moral and legal cynicism. Furthermore, adverse police encounters significantly increase perceptions of injustice; controlling for these encounters reduces the strength of the association between cynicism and injustice perceptions. Finally, the findings reveal that cynicism intensifies the association between adverse police encounters and perceptions of criminal injustice. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for research regarding perceived biases in the criminal justice system and neighborhood social processes.     

The thin blue line meets the big blue sky: perceptions of police legitimacy and public attitudes towards aerial drones

Police departments across the United States are now integrating new visual monitoring technology (e.g. unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs or ‘drones’], body cameras) into routine police practices. Despite their potential use in multiple areas of proactive and reactive policing, public attitudes toward police use of UAVs, and visual monitoring technology overall, is mixed. As an extension of previous research, the current study uses a national survey to assess how well individuals’ perceptions about police legitimacy, effectiveness, and other criminal justice attitudes predict the level of public receptivity and opposition toward police UAV use in various contexts. The implications of these findings for public policy and law enforcement practices are discussed.     

Police officers’ perceptions of organizational justice and their trust in the public

Research in organizational psychology has consistently demonstrated that employee perceptions of organizational justice have significant effects on employee attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Similar studies utilizing the organizational justice model in policing have also noted these effects, including the relationship of justice perceptions with officer attitudes toward the public. Recent theoretical developments in policing contend that the association between internal perceptions of justice and external attitudes may be the result of organizational and supervisory practices that ‘trickle-down’ into the police-community relationship. This paper explores this association by assessing the effects of officer perceptions of organizational justice on officer trust in the public. A sample of patrol division police officers were surveyed using measures taken from the organizational justice literature and Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman’s model of organizational trust. Results show a strong relationship between perceptions of organizational justice and trust in the public even when other relevant predictors are controlled.     

Global and specific attitudes toward the police: Disentangling the relationship

Since the 1960s, a substantial body of research has focused on citizens' attitudes toward the police. These studies tap a rather wide variety of outlooks: some ask about specific assessments of the police (e.g., satisfaction with the police in particular incidents), while others ask about more global assessments (e.g., satisfaction with the police in general, police in the community, or police in the neighborhood). Using data obtained through a panel survey of 398 residents of a large midwestern city, we compare specific assessments of police performance with more global attitudes toward the police. We also examine the effects of global and specific attitudes on one another. The results show that the two measures produce similar levels of support for the police. The results reveal further that global attitudes have substantial effects on specific assessments of police performance, and that the effects of specific assessments of police performance on global attitudes are modest by comparison.     

Reassessing the impact of race on citizens' attitudes toward the police: A research note

This paper reassesses the relationship between race and attitudes toward the police. Using data obtained through a telephone interview survey of 560 residents of Detroit, the study contradicts previous research by finding that blacks hold more favorable attitudes toward the police than do whites. To explain these findings, we argue that as the social context of cities changes, so might the relationship between race and citizens' attitudes toward the police.     

The impact of race on perceptions of criminal injustice

Based on a stratified sample of 239 residents of Cincinnati, Ohio, the present study explored whether African Americans and Whites differ in their perceptions of racial injustice in the criminal justice system. The data revealed a cleavage in the extent to which the races believed that Black citizens would be differentially stopped by the police, given a speeding ticket, jailed, and sentenced to death. The effect of race remained strong even when controls were introduced for sociodemographic characteristics, experience with the criminal justice system, experience with crime, neighborhood disorder, and political and crime related ideology. Perceptions of injustice, moreover, were strongest among the least affluent African Americans. The possibility that the racial divide in perceived criminal injustice both reflects and contributes to a larger racial chasm in how Black and White citizens understand and experience their lives in American society is explored.     

Attitudes of chinese immigrants and vietnamese refugees toward law enforcement in the United States

The present study identifies areas of concern related to the interaction of recent Asian arrivals with the American police, and differentiates Chinese immigrants from Vietnamese refugees. Community leaders reported their perception of Asian attitudes toward the police. This information was used to construct a questionnaire administered to residents of a Chinese and a Vietnamese community in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. The study found 1) that fear of crime, poor communication with police, and gang activities are the major concerns for the Vietnamese in the sample, and that fear of crime and perceived police prejudice against residents are the primary concerns for the Chinese; and 2) that the Vietnamese consistently rated all the problems as more serious than did the Chinese.