Racial, political identities influence people’s view of fatal police encounters

the community on a daily basis, in situations where no one is in trouble.

“This makes it less likely that citizens or police will overreact when a situation is more tense, such as when criminal behavior is alleged,” Haider-Markel said. “Secondly, these interactions can build community trust so that citizens believe they can turn to the police when they need help and are more willing to provide information to the police when a criminal investigation occurs.”

Among other details in the study, the researchers looked at how people’s identities might cross-cut each other as well as how other factors could influence one’s response to a question, especially the perceived race of the interviewer.

Racial identity appeared to be the most powerful predictor of perceiving police force as a widespread problem, the researchers found, even trumping ideological identity. Among African-Americans who described themselves as politically conservative, they were more likely to view fatal police encounters as a widespread problem instead of an isolated incident, relative to other conservatives.

“Many of us have multiple social identities, and some situations bring those into conflict with one another. In the case of conservatives, the group identity narrative points to an isolated incidents attribution, while for black respondents the group identity narrative suggests the broader problems attribution. So, when political and racial identities conflict, which will dominate for most people?” Haider-Markel said. “Our evidence suggests that racial identities will have the greatest influence.”

They did find that if a respondent, based on the interviewer’s voice, perceived the questioner to be African-American, he or she was more likely to attribute broader societal problems as a cause of the death of the black men in the police encounter.

“Our argument is that recent events involving police use of violence have become racialized, in large part because the interactions involve white officers and black citizens,” Haider-Markel said. “This context provides cues to observers that activate race as an important element. Our analysis confirms this pattern and previous research has found very similar race-based interviewer effects.”

— Read more in Donald P. Haider-Markel and Mark R. Joslyn “Bad Apples? Attributions for Police Treatment of African Americans,” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 17, no. 1 (4 December 2017): 358-78 (DOI: 10.1111/asap.12146)