Understanding the Impact of Direct and Vicarious Police Contact on “The Talk”

• In Event: Families and Intergenerational Transmission of Perspectives on Police and Justice

Abstract

Direct and vicarious police contact can be a traumatic event, justifying the need for parents to prepare children for encounters with law enforcement through a process known as “The Talk.” Police persistently target Black communities, and most research on “The Talk” is limited to Black families, so less is known about engagement in “The Talk” across more diverse racial and ethnic groups. Also less studied is what impact direct and vicarious police contact has on youth reports of receiving “The Talk” from caregivers. We rely on a pooled sample of 8,842 racially diverse 8th to 10th-grade students to examine how types of direct and vicarious police contact relate to receiving “The Talk.” Results of ordered logistic regression showed that while Black youth, males, and those with direct and vicarious contact are generally more likely to receive “The Talk,” race moderates youth engagement in “The Talk” in significant ways. Our findings show that Black/mixed race youth with intrusive police contact and Latinas have heightened odds of having “The Talk,” suggesting that essential nuances are often overlooked in studies with more racially homogenous samples.

Authors

• Ashley N. Jackson, Rutgers University

• Stephanie Wiley, University of Oregon

• Betty L. Wilson, University of South Carolina