Perceptions of the Police by Immigrant Youth: Looking at Stop-and-Frisk and beyond using a New York City sample

• In Event: Special Issue for Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice “The Significance of Immigration for Youth and their Experiences with Violence and Juvenile Justice”

Abstract

Research has documented the disproportionate exposure of minorities to police stops, arrests, use of force and other intense law enforcement practices. However, little is known about how immigrants, particularly young immigrants, relate the nature of their police encounters to their perceptions of law enforcement. We contribute to this literature by predicting variation in attitudes toward the police using quantitative data from young individuals ages 18-25 in New York City (N=508) and qualitative interviews with other young individuals (ages 13-21) and their caregivers (N=79). Findings show that first-generation immigrant youth (foreign-born) tend to exhibit more positive perceptions of police “effectiveness”, while second-generation immigrant youth (US born with at least one foreign-born parent) are more likely to report more negative perceptions of “police legitimacy”. The saliency of immigration generation to explain variation in both subdomains of police attitudes, however, is weakened by the youths’ relative exposure to involuntary contacts with law enforcement (number of lifetime stops), and the quality of these contacts (procedures and perceptions of fair and neutral treatment). These findings highlight the importance of police contact as a moderator of police attitudes for immigrants and natives, as well as the need to unpack perceived police performance into substantive subdomains.

Authors

• Andres F. Rengifo, Rutgers University

• Jennifer Fratello, Vera Institute of Justice