Diverse Backgrounds and Policing

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Policing: Theory, Diversity, Enforcement, & Partnerships

Abstract

In recent years, high-profile cases of police violence have garnered national debate around the future of policing and how it will address racial/ethnic bias. Current police recruiting campaigns target diversity, hiring racially and ethnically diverse officers, as a solution to the ongoing tensions between officers and the communities they serve. Consequently, bias is present in all Americans, as race has culturally constructed American society. This research questions the reliability of an officer's racial/ethnic status as catalysts of change for biases present in police organizations and police practices. Police officers from a southeastern city are assessed on their exposure to diversity as children/adolescents. Officers are also assessed using the Harvard Race Implicit Association Test (IAT), which evaluates their levels of implicit racial bias. The Exposure to Diversity Scale (EDS) is constructed to identify diverse experiences throughout childhood and adolescence (primary socialization) that may influence an individual's internalization of prejudice. The relationship between the EDS and Harvard's Race Implicit Association Test (IAT) is investigated using bivariate analysis. In conclusion, officers with more diverse experiences tended to have lower levels of implicit racial bias. Experiences with Black police officers, Black businessmen and women, and Black community leaders were negatively significant with IAT scores.

Author

• Maya Ida Wilson, Georgia State University