College Students' Perceptions of Racial Bias in Policing: A Cross-Disciplinary Analysis

• In Event: Teaching and Learning in Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 2: Race, Equity and Civic Engagement

Abstract

There are many factors associated with student perceptions of the police, including race, gender, sexual orientation, country of birth, encounters with the police, and commitment to education (Senreich & Williams-Gray, 2021). Research has shown the media also plays an important role in these perceptions, with publicized incidents of excessive use of force, such as George Floyd, and officer-involved shootings, such as Michael Brown, particularly influencing college students’ perceptions (Krieger, Chen, Waterman, Kiang, & Feldman, 2015). The goal of our research was to study race and policing students’ attitudes on police (mis)conduct and race, teach about the state of race and policing in the US, and find their attitudes on racial bias in policing change. As educators, we want our students to understand that media sources omit contextual factors that are likely to skew their perceptions of racial bias in policing. As such, we created a new teaching assignment which incorporates QuantCrit methods to highlight the importance of context to statistical reporting on the state of race and policing in the U.S. This paper has two main questions: (1) After learning about QuantCrit methods, how do students read and interpret statistics on race and policing in the US? (2) Are there differences in students’ interpretations by course type? Data come from an assignment written by students at two universities: students at a competitive, mid-sized research university (Eastbridge College) who took courses on race and racism in the US and students at a regional, small liberal arts university (Ridgeview University) who took courses on policing. Data were collected over the course of 2 academic years. Qualitative evidence to suggest that our assignment affects both policing and race students’ views, albeit in different ways.

Authors

• Crystal Peoples, Randolph College

• Brooke Mathna, Longwood University