Poster #130 - Framing Police Reform: Evidence from a National Survey Experiment

• In Event: Poster Session II (posters 80 – 155)

Abstract

Public opinion plays an important role in shaping criminal justice policy and practice. Although many policing strategies are intended to improve public safety, their adoption and sustainability may depend on whether the public views them as appropriate and legitimate. Yet limited research examines how members of the public evaluate trade-offs between the potential benefits and harms of policing strategies, or how information about those trade-offs shapes support for reform. Using a nationally representative sample of 2,000 U.S. adults, this study examines how different message framings influence attitudes toward four policing strategies: de-escalation training, co-responder models, vehicular pursuits, and consent decrees. Respondents were randomly assigned to receive positive, negative, or combined messages (i.e., positive and negative) emphasizing the benefits or potential harms of each strategy. Results show that conditions including potential harms were consistently associated with significantly lower support for reform proposals. Messages emphasizing benefits were generally not associated with increased support, except for vehicular pursuits, where positive information increased support, negative information decreased support, and combined messages were not significant. These findings highlight the importance of information framing in shaping public attitudes toward police reform and offer implications for understanding support for contemporary policing strategies.

Authors

• Trey Bussey, University of Cincinnati

• Brenna Dunlap, University of Cincinnati

• Leah C. Butler, University of Cincinnati

• Justin Nix, University of Nebraska Omaha