Officer Race Versus Macro-Level Context: A Test Of Competing Hypotheses About Black Citizens’ Experiences With And Perceptions Of Black Police Officers

Keywords

African Americans; Black citizens; Black police officers; community accountability; ecology; policing

Abstract

It has been proposed that hiring more Black police officers is an effective way to alleviate long-standing tensions between police and African Americans because Black officers will connect with Black citizens and treat them well. This hypothesis, however, fails to account for the macro-level context of the troubled locations in which African Americans disproportionately reside and wherein police–minority citizen problems are deep seated. The present study examines two competing hypotheses concerning the influence ofofficer race relative to that of ecological context in shaping African Americans’ experiences with and perceptions of local police. These hypotheses are testedusing in-depth interview data with Black residents of a majority-Black, high-crime, economically troubled city. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

Publication Date

3-14-2015

Publication Title

Crime and Delinquency

Volume

61

Issue

2

Number of Pages

213-242

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128711398027

Socpus ID

84922743780 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84922743780

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS