Police Legitimacy in Brazil: The Role of Race, Economic Class, and Trust on Perceived Bias

• In Event: Communities and Place Panel: Spatiotemporal analysis of crime and modelling: Insights from the Brazilian context

Abstract

This study investigates police legitimacy by exploring how individuals' perceptions of the risk of being mistaken for a criminal and the likelihood of experiencing police violence in Brazil vary across different intersections of race and economic class. Using binary models and a nationally representative dataset, we analyze perceptions of police bias among individuals who trust and those who distrust the police, controlling for neighbourhood-level characteristics. Our findings show that trust in the police acts as a moderator of perceived police bias, although the bias itself persists. Non-white individuals, regardless of their economic class, report a higher risk of being mistaken for criminals and experiencing police violence compared to their white counterparts. This disparity is particularly pronounced among those who distrust the police. These results underscore the persistent perception of inequalities in policing practices and highlight the urgent need for reforms to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all, regardless of race or income.

Authors

• Gustavo Carvalho Moreira, University of São Paulo, Brazil

• Vania Ceccato, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden

• Justice Tankebe, University of Cambridge, UK