Examining Race-specific Police Perceptions among Youths across the Past Two Decades: Perceived Neighborhood Racial Composition vs. Macro-historical Context

• In Event: Police Legitimacy and Trust

Abstract

Racial disparities in police perceptions have been documented since the invention of policing in the U.S., and recent research suggests that this gap has widened over the past decade. Although many cross-sectional studies have examined individual predictors of police perceptions, few have explored how community factors and macro-level social changes shape these views among different racial groups. Our study addresses the research gap by investigating how perceived neighborhood racial composition and cohort differences affect adolescents’ attitudes toward the police. Using Monitoring the Future data from 2000 to 2019, we analyze changes in race-specific police perceptions across four cohorts (Cohorts 2000–04, 2005–09, 2010–14, 2015–19) and examine the impacts of perceived neighborhood characteristics. Our results indicate that Black youths in racially dissimilar neighborhoods tend to hold less negative attitudes toward the police. In contrast, perceived neighborhood racial composition has minimal impact on White adolescents, except in the period with high-profile negative policing events. Overall, our findings indicate that youth attitudes toward the police are influenced by a combination of individual factors, local community context, and broader historical dynamics.

Authors

• Yunmei Lu, State University of New York at Buffalo

• Luzi Shi, University of Rhode Island