Stereotype Threat and Self-Legitimacy in Law Enforcement

• In Event: Procedural Justice and Legitimacy Research

Abstract

Recent work has shown that officers’ apprehension over being perceived as racist (stereotype threat) is associated with negative citizen interactions (Trinkner & Goff, in press). To explain this relation, scholars have argued that stereotype threat undermines officers’ belief in their normative authority—their self-legitimacy—as agents of the law, reducing their capacity to secure compliance and resolve conflict in non-coercive ways. However, this mechanism linking stereotype threat to negative outcomes has not been empirically tested. To address this gap, patrol officers and sergeants from a large urban police force completed a questionnaire including measures of stereotype threat, self-legitimacy, resistance toward the department’s use of force policy, approval of using unreasonable force, and support for using non-coercive tactics when interacting with the public. Structural equation modeling showed that, as expected, stereotype threat was negatively associated with self-legitimacy in white and non-white officers, net of the effects of age, experience, and rank. Moreover, self-legitimacy was negatively associated with resistance toward the department’s use of force policy and approval of using unreasonable force, while being positively related with support of non-coercive policing strategies. This study adds to a growing body of research showing the potential dangers of illegitimacy concerns among law enforcement.

Author

• Rick J. Trinkner, Arizona State University