Guns, Gloves, and Tasers: Perceptions of Police Officers and Their Use of Weapon as a Function of Race and Gender

Pica, Emily; Sheahan, Chelsea L.; Pozzulo, Joanna; Bennell, Craig

doi:10.1007/s11896-020-09365-3

Cited by 20 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…However, there is currently a lack of empirical literature concerning juror decision-making in trials involving police officers, let alone police UoF. To the best of our knowledge, there have been two (American) studies published that examine this issue (see Pica et al, 2020; Saulnier et al, 2019). Our study aims to gain a greater empirical understanding of the factors that relate to mock jurors’ perceptions and decision-making in trials involving police UoF.…”

Section: Police Legitimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mock juror decision-making in a self-defence trial involving police use of force.

Ewanation¹,

Maeder²,

Yamamoto³

2022

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des

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Previous research has found that citizens' attitudes concerning police legitimacy influence their behavior toward the police. However, this relationship has yet to be studied in the context of a jury trial involving police use of force (UoF). The primary goal of this article is therefore to examine whether mock jurors' race, along with their perceptions of police legitimacy, predict verdict decisions in trials involving police UoF. We hypothesized that participants' perceptions of police legitimacy would be significantly related to their verdict decisions. Additionally, we predicted that racial minorities would be less likely to find a defendant charged with murdering a police officer guilty, and that this relationship would be mediated by perceptions of police legitimacy. We recruited 275 undergraduate students who were eligible for Canadian jury duty. One-hundred and eighty-five (67.3%) of the participants were women, 87 (31.6%) were men. One-hundred and forty-five (52.7%) participants were White, while 130 (47.3%) were non-White. Participants viewed a video of a mock trial, rendered a dichotomous verdict, and responded to the Police Legitimacy Scale. Both participants' race (OR = .44) as well as their perceptions of police legitimacy (OR = 2.08) were significantly related to their verdict decisions. Subsequent analysis revealed that the relationship between participant race and verdict was partially mediated by perceptions of police legitimacy. Our findings provide further evidence that citizens' behaviors relating to police are related to their preexisting attitudes. Public Significance StatementMock jurors' preexisting perceptions of police legitimacy were significantly related to verdict decisions in a trial involving police use of force. The more legitimate that mock jurors perceived the police to be, the more likely they were to find a defendant guilty of murdering a police officer rather than accepting his claim of selfdefence. These results underscore police legitimacy's importance in community-police relations.

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Section: Police Legitimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mock juror decision-making in a self-defence trial involving police use of force.

Ewanation¹,

Maeder²,

Yamamoto³

2022

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des

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“…However, while PPE has been shown to be effective at inhibiting viral spread (Chu et al 2020;Cook 2020;Thomas et al 2020;WHO 2020a, b), past literature has empirically demonstrated that many of the items that actually constitute PPE can result in negative public perceptions when used by police (at least in other contexts). In an era of policing where the uniform is such an important piece of police equipment (Bell 1982;Bickman 1974;Durkin and Jeffery 2000;Joseph and Alex 1972;Simpson 2017Simpson , 2020aSinger and Singer 1985), and where changes in police esthetics can impact perceptions of officers (Boyanowsky and Griffiths 1982;Johnson et al 2015;O'Neill et al 2018;Pica et al 2020;Simpson 2017Simpson , 2019Simpson , 2020aYesberg et al 2020), any sudden alterations to the uniform could impact public perceptions and community relations. The present research thus uses a between-subjects design with within-subjects variation to experimentally test the effects of PPE on perceptions of police in the context of PPE awareness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by police during a public health crisis: An experimental test of public perception

Simpson

Sandrin

2021

J Exp Criminol

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“…Making matters more complex, Saulnier et al (2019) failed to find a race effect when examining the impact of an officer's body-worn camera footage and eyewitness race on judgments of force justifiability. However, Pica et al (2020) did find that officer guilt ratings regarding use of force increased when the officer was White as opposed to Black, along with when the suspect was White compared with Black. Furthermore, Pica et al (2020) found increased guilt ratings when the officer shot the suspect as opposed to using less severe force.…”

Section: Public Judgment and Mock Juror Studies Regarding Use Of Forcementioning

confidence: 84%

What’s reasonable? An experimental test of the reasonable officer standard.

Vardsveen¹,

Wiener²

2022

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

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Under the U.S. Supreme Court's legal standard for determining civil liability in Fourth Amendment excessive force cases, jurors must judge the reasonableness of an officer's use of force from the perspective of a "reasonable" officer on the scene by considering factors like a suspect's threat and resistance levels. However, despite a growing body of empirical work on judgments of police use of force more generally, research has yet to examine whether jurors adhere to the reasonable officer standard. To help fill this gap, the current research reports on two online experiments that manipulated suspect threat and resistance levels, along with suspect race and perspective-taking in the form of expert and social fact testimony suggesting what a reasonable officer would do in similar circumstances. The results showed that suspect threat level and perspective-taking information indirectly affected officer liability decisions through officer reasonableness judgments, but that suspect resistance level did not. The results also revealed the influence of various extralegal factors outside the legal standard on reasonableness judgments and liability decisions, including attitudes toward police legitimacy and feelings toward the Black Lives Matter movement. Thus, the findings across both experiments showed that mock jurors adhered to some aspects of the reasonable officer standard but that their own sentiments still influenced their legal determinations. Finally, expert, and social fact testimony related to use of force assisted mock jurors in making officer reasonableness judgments and liability decisions when applying the reasonable officer standard. Implications of this research for psychology, law, and policy are discussed.

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Guns, Gloves, and Tasers: Perceptions of Police Officers and Their Use of Weapon as a Function of Race and Gender

Cited by 20 publications

References 37 publications

Mock juror decision-making in a self-defence trial involving police use of force.

Mock juror decision-making in a self-defence trial involving police use of force.

The use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by police during a public health crisis: An experimental test of public perception

What’s reasonable? An experimental test of the reasonable officer standard.

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