Racial Resentment and Attitudes Toward the Use of Force by the Police among Whites

• In Event: 174 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Racial Prejudice

Abstract

On the heels of recent racial tensions over the police shooting of an unarmed teen in Ferguson, Missouri, this paper examines how beliefs about race and racial inequality have influenced whites’ attitudes toward police use of force since the mid-1980s. Our main dependent measure is a composite index (“Police Force Index”) constructed from four survey items from the 1986-2012 National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey (GSS). Results show that 1) beliefs about race do indeed significantly predict whites’ attitudes toward police use of force and, more importantly, 2) this has remained constant since the mid-1980s. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these findings and suggestion for future research.

Authors

• J. Scott Carter, University of Central Florida

• Mamadi Corra, East Carolina University