How Wide Is the Political Divide? Respondent Political Affiliation and Victim Criminal Background Affects Perceived Guil
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How Wide Is the Political Divide? Respondent Political Affiliation and Victim Criminal Background Affects Perceived Guilt of Police Who Shoot Children Rebecca L. Fix 1
& Spencer
T. Fix 2
Received: 21 November 2019 / Accepted: 18 February 2020/ # Southern Criminal Justice Association 2020
Abstract African Americans/Black citizens in the United States are far more likely to be shot by law enforcement officers (LEOs) than European Americans/White citizens. A limited amount of research examines factors contributing to perceived consequences for police who shoot civilians, especially respondent political affiliation. The present study tested how different factors influenced perceived outcomes for LEOs who shoot youth using case vignettes in a diverse sample of 1044 participants. Vignettes included a shooting scenario that manipulated victim race/ethnicity, LEO race/ethnicity, and victim criminal history across vignettes. Results indicated a main effect of the presence or absence of criminal history on: perceived guilt of perpetrator, whether the perpetrator should be fired from their job, whether the perpetrator should be incarcerated, and whether the victim’s family should be monetarily compensated. There was also a robust main effect of political affiliation, such that conservative political affiliation was associated with more lenient views on all outcomes for the LEO. Additionally, several noteworthy interaction effects were observed. Overall, results suggest that, along with situational factors, political affiliation strongly influences the perceptions of guilt and other consequences for police officers who shoot civilians. Differential messaging is warranted to improve public perceptions of LEOs based on political affiliation. Keywords Discrimination . Juvenile offender . Law enforcement officer . Bias
* Rebecca L. Fix [email protected]
1
Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins University, 415 N. Washington Street, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
2
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, 4094 Campus Drive, College Park, MD 20742, USA
American Journal of Criminal Justice
In the United States, nearly 1000 citizens were shot and killed by law enforcement officers (LEOs) in 2016 (Post, 2017), with the probability of being shot being 3.5 times greater for Black/African Americans than the probability for White/European Americans (Ross, 2015). Further, males comprised 95% of fatal LEO shootings in 2017– 2018, and 33% of fatal shootings in 2017 included youth and young adults. While deadly force encounters with LEOs are generally rare (Hyland, Langton, & Davis, 2015), recent high-profile police shootings – particularly those involving minors as victims – have garnered significant attention from media outlets and the general population (Chermak, McGarrell, & Gruenewald, 2006). As such, deadly force justification has been hotly debated, and perceptions of LEOs have changed for many individuals (Miller, 2015). It is important to advance our understanding of factors which influence public perceptions of LE
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