Exploring Black Young Adults’ Decision-Making during a Traffic Stop

• In Event: Policing Blackness: Interrogating Perceptions, Behaviors, & Interactions

Abstract

Traffic stops represent an involuntary interaction between police officers and citizens. During this interaction, citizens decide if they will comply with the officer’s action such as receiving a verbal warning or a ticket. Or the individual might decide that that they do not agree, and respond by deferring to or defying the police officer’s orders. Black young adults represent a group that has expressed concern for a contentious relationship with the police, by using social media hash tags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #HandsUpsDontShoot, and #SayHerName. In this study, a sample of Black young adults (ages 18-25) engaged in a dynamic survey experience using a vignette about a traffic stop. Within the vignette, participants were asked if they would comply with requests: (1) to produce ID, (2) to allow the search of a car trunk, (3) to get out of the car, (4) to allow search of their person, and (5) to sit on the ground. Participants were asked questions to gauge their compliance, deference and defiance during the interaction. Descriptive and comparative analyses will be conducted to highlight how participants engage in each decision. Additional variables, such as legal knowledge and perceived discrimination, were also incorporated into the analyses.

Authors

• Danielle Cooper, University of New Haven

• Jennifer Klein, University of Texas at Tyler