The study elucidates the interplay of COVID-19 and the wave of Black Lives Matter protests to assess motivation and risk taking for protest participation. We draw on protesters’ accounts to examine how police violence influenced the participants decision making to participate in the 2020 March on Washington during a pandemic that exacerbated the risks already in place from protesting the police. We found that protesters’ social position and commitment to the cause provided motivations, along with a zeal to do more especially among White protesters. For Black participants, the images in the media resonated with their own experiences of structural racism from police.
The high rate of recidivism among those reentering the community post incarceration can be partially attributed to various barriers to reentry, including unemployment, financial difficulties, and mental illness. Learning to cope with these barriers is demanding and stressful for many people. The current article examines whether individual coping styles could act as a significant predictor of recidivism. Utilizing a cross-sectional data set collected from previously incarcerated individuals, this study examines the relationship between individual coping styles and arrest or reincarceration. Results from this study indicate a relationship between coping and arrest. Implications from this study are noteworthy given that our understanding of coping can increase the ability of the correctional staff to reduce later recidivism in the community.
Research summary: Using qualitative interviews, this study examines how protesters with varying levels of commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement perceive the slogan defund the police. Findings indicate while a small number had reservations regarding the term, the vast majority of protesters associate defunding as a two‐step process that starts with reduction of police budgets, followed by reallocation of these resources toward much needed services in the very communities the departments serve. Findings also revealed prior engagement with the Black Lives Matter movement, and the level of commitment of participants did play an important role in being able to provide nuanced context to the call for action.
Policy implications: Implementation of reduction of police budgets indicates a need to reimagine the role and function of police in most affected communities. In addition, there is a need to reinvest in local resources that would provide the much needed support toward marginalized communities. Further, social movement organizations should partner with corporate brands and advertising agencies to effectively promote their goals and slogans toward a diverse range of audience in media.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.