Crisis & Confidence: An Experiment on Public Opinion & Police Shootings

• In Event: Poster Session: Public Opinion & Ideas, Knowledge and Politics
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Public Opinion

Abstract

Public opinion about policing has previously been studied by political scientists from an observational perspective. Scholars have identified attitudes held by the public about police officers, police actions, and police policies. Yet, there is little to no political science research to explain what it is about these officers, actions, and policies that causes the public’s attitudes. As officer-involved shootings have acutely taken a prominent position in national political discourse, an understanding of how attitudes form after such significant police events is increasingly necessary. I conduct an experiment that seeks to identify how the public attributes blame after an officer-involved shooting, and how such an event impacts trust in the police, both generally and locally. The experiment presents a narrative of an officer-involved shooting as either an episodic or thematic occurrence. The episodic frame highlights the officer’s sterling credentials in order to stress that the shooting was a singular instance. The thematic frame places the shooting in the context of the national conversation on police shootings of young black men. Episodic frames are expected to result in greater blame for the incident attributed to the victim, while thematic frames should result in subjects attributing greater blame to the police. Trust in the police should likewise change according to the narrative’s frame. The findings of this experiment can shed light on how officer-involved shootings affect the public’s trust in the police and government more generally, as well as how blame is attributed to various actors following such an incident. Such information can prove valuable in considering how public opinion on policing practices and policing policies is affected following an officer-involved shooting.

Author

• Daniel J. Simmons, University of California, Davis