Police Comprehension and Perception of African American English: A Matched-Guise Study

• In Event: Enhancing Police Legitimacy and Procedural Justice in Black-American Communities

Abstract

Public trust of police is deteriorating. Academic scholarship reveals significant racial disparities in police encounters and at various other stages in the criminal justice process. Racial and linguistic bias, uncovered specifically in courtroom settings, prompts speculation that these biases might extend to other community member interactions with the criminal justice system. Work in linguistics demonstrates that speakers of African American English (AAE) are perceived as less educated, less trustworthy, and more likely to be criminally involved than those who do not speak AAE. By taking into consideration the current climate of policing, particularly the tenuous relationship between Black people and police officers, the matched-guise experimental methodology employed in this study measures the extent to which police officers can comprehend fictitious witness statements made in AAE as compared to similar statements made in Mainstream American English. Additionally, officer perceptions of AAE speakers versus non-AAE speakers across a range of dimensions (e.g., cooperativeness, trustworthiness, criminal involvement, aggressiveness) are evaluated. Findings from this study broaden and strengthen scholarship on Black experiences in the criminal justice system while also uncovering potential sources of bias and influences on legal cynicism among Black people.

Author

• Katherine Inez Barrus, Indiana University