Intentional Inequalities and Compounding Effects

Drakulich, Kevin M.; Rodriguez‐Whitney, Eric

doi:10.1002/9781119113799.ch1

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…One is that in addition to differences in the quantity of experiences with the police, differences in the quality of experiences are also likely to matter. Additionally, other dimensions of contemporary racial attitudes-such as sympathy or White identification (Chudy 2021;Hannan et al 2021;Jardina 2019) or the ignorance that protects White privilege (Drakulich and Rodriguez-Whitney 2018;Mills 2007Mills , 2011)-may also be relevant to views of police use of force.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Believes that the Police Use Excessive Force? Centering Racism in Research on Perceptions of the Police

Drakulich,

Robles,

Rodriguez-Whitney

et al. 2022

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Objectives. Police use of excessive-even fatal-force is a significant social issue, one at the symbolic heart of the Black Lives Matter civil rights movement. However, a substantial number of Americansdisproportionately White-tend to minimize the prevalence of this issue. We seek to explain differences in these views. Methods. We look at whether experiences with the police, politics, and three measures of racial attitudes explain differences in views of the prevalence of police use of excessive force, and we specifically test for whether these factors help explain racial stratification in these views. Using data from three different recent national surveys collected by the American National Election Studies, we attempt to replicate our findings within this paper. Results. Views of police use of force are highly stratified by race and politics and racial attitudes-in particular racial resentment-play an important role in explaining these differences.Conclusions. If we hope to address this important issue, it matters that many people minimize its existence, and it matters why they minimize it. We argue that centering race in crime and justice research necessarily means centering racism.There are substantial issues with the way justice is administered in the U.S., and most of these issues are racially disparate; Black Americans in particular are disproportionately likely to be exposed to the most toxic aspects of the justice system (e.g. Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss 2007;Mauer 2011;Nix et al. 2017). For these reasons, it is important to center race in thinking about criminal justice solutions: solutions that fail to center race may fail to address racial inequalities and injustices. However, simply centering race is not enough. Racial differences in measures of crime and justice outcomes have been featured prominently in social science research since at least the progressive era (Muhammad 2010).Historically, explanations for racial differences have sometimes identified biological or cultural deficiencies as a cause (Rafter, Posick, and Rocque 2016;Small, Harding, and Lamont 2010). Work that is agnostic about the explanation for observed racial differences leave the door open to these interpretations. For this reason, it is critical to explicitly identify why race matters: because of racism (Graves Jr. and Goodman 2021).Race matters to crime and justice outcomes not because of anything intrinsic to race, but because of racism (e.g.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Believes that the Police Use Excessive Force? Centering Racism in Research on Perceptions of the Police

Drakulich,

Robles,

Rodriguez-Whitney

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…On the one hand, law enforcement agents have protected civil rights protesters, enforced desegregation orders, and protected black students as they integrated public schools. On the other hand, law enforcement officers also helped enforce the Fugitive Slave Act prior to the Civil War, facilitated the convict leasing program during Reconstruction, enforced the black codes and Jim Crow laws during the first half of the twentieth century, and quelled mass protests for racial justice from the 1960s up through the present (e.g., Alexander, 2010;Blackmon, 2008;Drakulich & Rodriguez-Whitney, 2018;Wacquant, 2003). As a result, the image of U.S.…”

Section: Social Movements Collective Action Framing and Mobilizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race and policing in the 2016 presidential election: Black Lives Matter, the police, and dog whistle politics

Drakulich,

Wozniak,

Hagan

et al. 2020

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A series of deaths of black Americans at the hands of the police sparked mass protests, received extensive media coverage, and fueled a new civil rights movement in the years leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Both major party nominees campaigned on issues of race and policing in different ways. Drawing upon colorblind racism theories and the history of law and order politics, we explore how views of race relations and the police were associated with voting behavior. We ask whether people were engaged with the civil rights issues raised by Black Lives Matter, and on the other hand whether Trump's expressions of support for the police functioned as a racial "dog whistle" to mobilize a particular set of voters. Using the 2016 ANES Time Series Study, we find that concern about biased policing and support for the civil rights movement seeking to address it were associated with increased turnout among Democrats and more votes for Clinton. In addition, consistent with a dog whistle effect, claims of supporting the police were connected to votes for Trump mainly among those with high levels of racial resentment. We conclude by discussing the symbolic role of police in American society and politics.

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