NCJ Number
154232
Journal
Social Justice Research Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1995) Pages: 41-56
Date Published
1995
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Instances of excessive force by police officers, most notably the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles and the Malice Green fatality in Detroit, suggest that suspect race may affect the decision to use excessive force.
Abstract
To assess citizen evaluations of police brutality toward minorities, a telephone survey containing 16 vignettes was developed as part of a larger study focusing on police misconduct. Each vignette described a separate type of misconduct in which a hypothetical police officer was involved. Of the 16 vigettes, three described the misconduct of excessive force. The telephone survey involved 992 Ohio citizens and tested the hypothesis that citizens in general would assign significantly lower seriousness scores to excessive force toward blacks and Hispanics than toward whites. The hypothesis was not supported. Instead, evidence suggested that suspect behavior during arrest and police officer behavior were much more significant correlates of citizen perceptions of excessive force by police than suspect race. Respondents generally assigned higher seriousness scores to vignettes when the suspect was black or Hispanic than when the suspect was white. Further, women assigned higher seriousness scores than their male counterparts. 33 references and 4 tables