Police Legitimacy in Police-citizen Encounters: Untangling the Effect of Situational Factors

• In Event: Justice during Police Encounters

Abstract

Using the Police-Community Interaction Survey (PCI) of the National Police Research Platform Phase II, 2013-2015, the current study assesses the effects of the nexus of officer race and citizen race and officer gender and citizen gender on public perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy. Three types of Police-citizen encounters will be examined: traffic stop, traffic crash, and crime report. The sample size is 15,569 respondents who had a recent contacts with the police. A large sample size allows the construction of a comprehensive combination of officer and citizen race and gender, and the test of multi-level impacts on public evaluations of the police. The primary statistical approaches include factor analysis and multivariate regression analyses. Factor analyses focus on comparing the validity of key concepts proposed by Tyler and other scholars (i.e. Tankebe). Multivariate regression analyses assess the direct and indirect (through procedural justice) influences of the police-citizen racial and gender combinations on public views of legitimacy. Findings will advance our knowledge on the complexities of race and gender, and how citizens’ perceptions of police are shaped by the race and gender of both citizens and officers. This study will also inform police administrators on how to enhance police legitimacy.

Author

• Luye Li, University of Delaware