Policing Protest Through Policy: A Quantitative Analysis of Racial Attitudes and Anti-Protest Legislation

• In Event: Social Movements and Criminal Justice: Movement Impacts and Perspectives on Advocacy

Abstract

News media and public dialogues have recognized the seemingly increasing criminalization of protest behaviors and its possible connection to racial attitudes. Scholars have primarily inquired into this form of criminalization through police response and violence at mass protests. However, less attention has been paid to the role of state-level legislation in institutionalizing protest criminalization and contributing to the historical criminalization of people of color through their disproportionate contact with the legal justice system. This research examines whether protest criminalization, in the form of state-level legislation that limits protest behaviors, has increased since 2017 and is associated with changes in racial attitudes, specifically racial resentment, racial threat, colorblindness, and implicit bias. Upon constructing study variables from several data sources (including the U.S. Protest Law Tracker), I conduct data analysis through a panel regression model. Comparisons within and across 50 states between 2016 and 2021 will indicate whether the criminalization of protest behaviors has increased and whether state-level racial attitudes are associated with protest criminalization. Findings and policy implications will be discussed, including the racialized expansion of the U.S. criminal justice system and the influence of legislation on one's right to protest.

Author

• Stephanie Ha, University of Delaware