Race and Perceptions of Police

Presented at UROP Symposium

University of California, Irvine

by

Mei-Ling N. Malone

May 13, 2006

How do people perceive the social functions of the police?

How does race impact that perception?

Previous Research

• Police brutality generates far more negative impressions of the police for blacks than for whites and Latinos. (Weitzer and Tuch 1997)

• Blacks are significantly more likely than whites to perceive the police unfavorably. (Weitzer and Tuch 1999)

Methods

Quantitative & Qualitative Instruments:

1) Social Attitudes Surveys

– Administered to 200 UCI students, two large general education lecture courses (n=143)

Methods

2) Focus-Groups

– Five one-hour interviews with multiracial groupings of six UCI students each (n=30)

Methods

Focus-group questions :

1. Where are you from and where are your parents from?

2. How do you feel about the police?

3. How have family or other influences impacted your perception of the police?

4. What are some interactions you have had with the police?

5. How do you feel your racial group in general is treated by the police in comparison to the treatment given to other racial groups?

Limitations

• Non-random convenience sampling reduces external validity of study and circumscribes generalization of conclusions

Results

Major finding…

Stark differences along black/non-black divide: black participant perceptions of police differed greatly from those of white, Asian, and Latino participants.

Results

• Critique of police given by white, Asian, and Latino participants differed significantly from that given by black participants.

What do you think about the police? Some common responses:

• “I’m neutral, I haven’t really thought about the police.”

• “We need them in society.”

• “I definitely respect the police, they are human like the rest of us.”

What do you think about the police? Some uncommon responses:

• “I have no respect for the police.”

• “Most people feel safe around the police… I never felt that way.”

• “They are agents of oppression.”

• “I don’t trust them… I never will.”

Divergent Critiques

Whites, Asians, Latinos

• “police are not nice…”

• “police are not efficient…”

• “they ruin parties…”

• “too many cops in crimeless areas, e.g. Newport and Irvine…”

• “need more cops in dangerous places…”

• “out to fill ticket quotas…”

Blacks

• “police are not needed, they just provoke more violence…”

• “we live in a police state…our country is run by the police…”

• “blacks are targets for violence…”

• “police serve to uphold the status quo…actively maintaining blacks’ position at the bottom…”

Question # 5

• How do you feel your racial group is treated by the police in comparison to other groups?

White Responses

• “I haven’t really seen any negative aspects of the police with brown people, I think people try to exaggerate things on the news and twist things and stuff to make things look worse.”

• “I’m white and they treat us better than minorities but I have heard stories where people are treated like minorities equally.”

• “I’m white and I think they probably treat us the best but…I guess… I mean there is the connotation that we get the best treatment.”

• “I’m from white upper class and so I’m probably treated the best out of all racial groups…but I should be treated the best but I don’t feel like I am…but stereotypically rich white people supposedly get better treatment, especially adults.”

Asian Responses

• “I grew up with a lot of Asians and I guess they are just neutral towards us…I think they treat everybody equally.”

• “I think there are a few individuals that are ignorant about different cultures and races. And those few individuals ruin it for the whole department.”

Latino Responses

• “Well a lot of the gangsters are Mexican so the police don’t treat them as nicely because of all of their criminal activity.”

• “For me it depends on the area and I live in an area where the police are very nice.”

Black Responses

•“There is definitely an us versus them…when people talk about -- to protect and to serve -- that is a reference to protect white people and serve white people, and protect whites from blacks.”

•“I have been walking down the street with my father and he has gotten pulled over because he fits a description. My brother has been harassed by the police because he fits a profile. I feel like to be black is to fit a profile

•.“Blacks are seen as targets for violence, just the physical appearance alone…blacks are targets for any kind of abuse or victimization…that’s the police first response when they see a black person.”

•“Its like slavery times…you walk past a police officer, look down, don’t make eye contact and keep moving.”

Conclusions

• Black students hold qualitatively different appraisals of the police than their white, Asian, and Latino counterparts.

Implications

• A general complacency with the current structure of policing

• Majority of participants appear unlikely to be receptive to or supportive of claims against the police

• Broader efforts for police reform are thereby dampened

Future Research

• How do perceptions of police correlate with empirical measures of police treatment?

• Do blacks and non-blacks exhibit significant differences in perceptions of other political and legal institutions? If so, which ones and why?

Acknowledgements

• Dr. John Dombrink• Dr. Valerie Jenness • Mr. Johnny Nhan• Dr. Sohail Daulatzai • Dr. Jared Sexton• Katsuya Mitsuhashi • Ana Ramirez • UROP

Thank you!!!

For further information

Mei-Ling MaloneDepartment of Criminology, Law & Society

Social Ecology Honors ProgramUniversity of California, IrvineMeiLing.Malone@gmail.com