Impact of Suspect Race on Perceived Legitimacy of Police Use of Force
Department
Psychological Science
Major
Psychology
Research Advisor
Cundiff, Jessica L.
Advisor's Department
Psychological Science
Abstract
Recent social movements have drawn attention to the excessive use of police force on African American men. The purpose of this research is to examine whether police use of force is perceived as more legitimate when used on African American compared to European American male suspects. Participants will read one of six scenarios describing a police encounter with a male suspect. The scenarios vary on two dimensions: (1) whether the suspect is threatening, non-threatening, or ambiguous and (2) whether the suspect is African American or European American. After reading the scenarios, participants will rate their perceptions of the legitimacy of police use of force. We hypothesize that participants will rate police use of force as more legitimate when used on African American vs. European American suspects, but only when threat of suspect is ambiguous. We did not expect differences based on suspect race for the threatening and non-threatening conditions.
Biography
Dawn Little is a senior graduating in December 2017 with her BA in Psychology and a minor in Leadership Communication. She plans to attend Graduate School and focus on Social Psychology. She is the Vice President of the CASB Undergraduate Student Leadership Council, a STEP UP Student Ambassador, a member of the Student Leadership Conference planning committee, and has interned with COER. When not at school, she works year round at Six Flags St. Louis as a Managerial Supervisor of Guest Services.
Research Category
Social Sciences
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Document Type
Poster
Award
Social science poster session, First place
Location
Upper Atrium/Hall
Presentation Date
11 Apr 2017, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Impact of Suspect Race on Perceived Legitimacy of Police Use of Force
Upper Atrium/Hall
Recent social movements have drawn attention to the excessive use of police force on African American men. The purpose of this research is to examine whether police use of force is perceived as more legitimate when used on African American compared to European American male suspects. Participants will read one of six scenarios describing a police encounter with a male suspect. The scenarios vary on two dimensions: (1) whether the suspect is threatening, non-threatening, or ambiguous and (2) whether the suspect is African American or European American. After reading the scenarios, participants will rate their perceptions of the legitimacy of police use of force. We hypothesize that participants will rate police use of force as more legitimate when used on African American vs. European American suspects, but only when threat of suspect is ambiguous. We did not expect differences based on suspect race for the threatening and non-threatening conditions.
