Police Contact, Perceived Injustice, and Politics

• In Event: Police Contact and Perceptions of Justice

Abstract

Criminologists have long been interested in the intersection of race, crime and politics. In particular, much work has focused on historical connections, including the Southern Strategy and the War on Crime. Recently, a series of high-profile incidents involving the deaths of African-American men at the hands of the police has brought renewed visibility to this intersection. Drawing theoretically from work on perceptions of injustice, the present work explores the political relevance of both contact with and perceptions of the police. Utilizing a national survey of potential voters conducted in January of 2016, the paper finds both contact with the police and criminal justice system as well as perceptions of injustice in the actions of the police to be relevant to both the likelihood of voting and candidate choice, captured both retrospectively and prospectively.

Authors

• Kevin Drakulich, Northeastern University

• John Hagan, Northwestern University

• Kevin Wozniak, University of Massachusetts Boston

• Devon Johnson, George Mason University