Examining Citizen Perceptions of Traffic Stops: Assessing the Moderating Influence of Race and Situational Context

• In Event: 30267 - Policing and Military Sociology

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to build on prior research by assessing the relationship between perceptions of traffic stops, situational factors, and driver characteristics using data from the Police-Public Contact survey, a nationally representative survey of Police-Citizen contacts in the United States. This analysis has several goals. The first goal of is to examine whether perceptions of the legitimacy of traffic stops declined from 2015 to 2020. The second goal is to identify the situational factors and driver's characteristics that influence citizens to believe the officers had a legitimate reason to stop them. The final goal is to examine how situational factors and the driver's demographic characteristics interact to influence whether the driver viewed the stop as legitimate. To conduct this analysis, I used a logistic regression model to examine which situational factors and driver characteristics influenced drivers' perceptions of traffic stops from 2015 to 2020. Then, I used a moderation model to assess whether the relationship between the driver's race and perceiving the stop as legitimate is influenced by situational factors related to the stop.

Author

• Roderick Leon Pearson, University of Cincinnati