The Influence of Race/Ethnicity, Social Class, and Neighborhood Context on Residents' Attitudes Toward the Police

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to extend our understanding of attitudes toward the police by examining how race/ethnicity, social class, and neighborhood context interact to influence four different dimensions of attitudes: neighborhood, global, police services, and fear of the police. The results showed significant racial/ethnic variation in perceptions of the police, with African-Americans reporting the most negative attitudes. The magnitude of the racial/ethnic gap, however, varied across the different attitude dimensions with the largest difference between African-Americans and Whites in terms of fear of the police. The findings also suggested that African-Americans' and Hispanics' perceptions of the police are moderated by the interaction of social class and neighborhood socioeconomic composition. Middle-class African-Americans and Hispanics who resided in disadvantaged neighborhoods reported more negative attitudes toward the police than those who resided in more advantaged areas. Overall the study findings highlight the complex interplay between experiences, community context, social class, and type of attitudinal assessment in understanding within and across racial and ethnic variation in residents' perceptions of the police.

Attitudes Toward the Police: The Significance of Race and Other Factors Among College Students

“…Previous research has demonstrated that members of racial minority groups, especially African Americans, tend to give the police less favorable evaluations compared to the White racial group (Miller & Davis, 2008;Reisig & Parks, 2000;Schuck, Rosenbaum, & Hawkins, 2008). This could be explained by the fact that minorities have more contacts with the police (see Alpert, Dunham, & Smith, 2007), which makes it more likely that they look at the police more suspiciously and view them as a threat.…”

“…However, there is also a strong indication that citizens' perceptions of the criminal justice system after an encounter are based not on the outcome of the encounter but on the perception of equity and fairness associated with the encounter (Engel, 2005). Because there are more police-citizen contacts in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, residents of such neighborhoods have more negative attitudes toward the police than have members of upper class residential communities (Schuck et al, 2008). But literature has little to offer in relation to whether the same attitudinal differences between persons who have experienced negative police encounters and those who have not continue to exist after the subjects have been exposed to factual information that characterizes higher educational attainment.…”

Interrogation and the Minority Suspect: Pathways to True and False Confession

“…Both native and immigrant minority populations often have negative expectations of police, though the extent of such negativity varies between specifi c minority groups and locales, and tends to be greatest in disadvantaged neighborhoods (e.g., Schuck, Rosenbaum, & Hawkins, 2008 ). For instance, the expectation that police offi cers will disproportionally target and brutalize Blacks is intergenerationally transmitted as a way to prevent other Blacks (especially the male youth) from getting into legal troubles (Dottolo & Stewart, 2008 ).…”

Fostering Innovation in U.S. Law Enforcement: Identifying High-Priority Technology and Other Needs for Improving Law Enforcement Operations and Outcomes

“…This is especially true in many large cities, where high rates of residential segregation, crime, poverty, and unemployment (Schuck, Rosenbaum, and Hawkins, 2008;Weitzer, Tuch, and Skogan, 2008) have traditionally led to tension between the police and some communities (Dai and Jonson, 2009;Berg et al, 2016).…”