Racial resentment and police misconduct: The factors driving personal perception of cop violence - Salon.com

"Police violence in the United States is endemic. An investigation by the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah finds that more residents in the state were killed by police than gang members or drug dealers. Between Jan. 1 and May 3 of 2015, 1 in 13 of the gun killings in the U.S. were committed by police. However, it does not fall equally across racial groups. According to the Guardian, people of color make up 38 percent of the population, but 47 percent of those killed by police. People of color make up 63 percent of those who are unarmed when killed by police.



Using the American National Election Studies 2016 (ANES 2016) survey, which includes a battery of questions on police violence, I find that racial resentment strongly predicts attitudes about police conduct. I also find differences across party lines, race and support for major presidential nominees.



Racial Resentment and Attitudes About Police Use of Force



To explore attitudes about police violence, I use the ANES 2016 survey, which I’ve discussed in more detail here. ANES 2016 asks respondents, “In general, do the police treat whites better than blacks, treat blacks better than whites, or treat them both the same?” Among all respondents, 37% answer “the same” (2% say black people are treated better, 60% say whites are). Among white respondents, 42% say police treat whites and blacks equally, compared with a mere 19% of Black respondents (and a quarter of Latino respondents). There were large partisan differences as well: less than a fifth of Clinton supporters say police treat black people and people equally, compared to more than half of Trump supporters (53%).



Using a model created in collaboration with San Francisco State political scientist Jason McDaniel, I explore the effects of racial resentment on attitudes towards police behavior (see here for a discussion of racial resentment). In a model that controls for party identification, ideology, family income, education, age and gender, racial resentment strongly predicts white attitudes towards police violence. The charts below show that as resentment increases, respondents are less likely to say that whites are treated better by the police, more likely to say that police treat both white and black people the same."



Racial resentment and police misconduct: The factors driving personal perception of cop violence - Salon.com