Perceptions of Police Discrimination among African, Caribbean, and Black Youth in a Mid-sized Canadian City

• In Event: Voices of Criminalized Young People of Color: Intersections of Race, Sexuality, Gender, Immigration, and Silence

Abstract

Recent deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police and the creation of the protest movement Black Lives Matter has brought public attention to claims of racial profiling and police discrimination in the United States. In Canada, concerns about racial profiling centre on the disproportionate number of visible minority, particularly African-diasporic individuals targeted in ‘street checks’ or ‘carding’. Multivariate block logistic regression was used to compare the explanatory power of three theoretical approaches (Broken Windows, Routine Activities, and Critical Race Theory) with respect to contact with and perceptions of police discrimination in a sample of African-diasporic youth (N=529) who self-identify as African, Caribbean, or Black in a city in Ontario, Canada. All three theories contributed significantly to explaining contact and perceived discrimination. Of particular note were the effects of ethno-racial identity and time in Canada on both contact with the police and perceived discrimination. In addition, the significant increase in the variance explained with each successive block suggests both theoretical and practical results might be enhanced by combining the three theories. This study adds to the discussion of inequality and youth-police contacts and experiences, and to the Canadian criminological literature exploring relationships between police and racialized youth.

Authors

• Amy Peirone, University of Windsor

• Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, University of Windsor

• Kenny Gbadebo, Youth Connection Association for Academic Excellence Inc.

• Jelani Kerr, University of Louisville