Hillary Potter
Associate Professor Ethnic Studies, University Of Colorado Boulder
Key Findings
- Age, region, and gender had an impact on a participant’s likelihood of reporting they had recently been treated unfairly by the police.
- Being older, from the south, and female decreased the individual’s likelihood of reporting police mistreatment.
- Being younger, from the north, and male increased an individual’s likelihood of reporting police mistreatment.
- Black men were less likely to report police mistreatment if they were older and had a higher income.
Description
In the article, “Race, Gender, and the Perception of Recently Experiencing Unfair Treatment by the Police: Exploratory Results From an All-Black Sample,” Potter and her co-authors examined the experiences of Black individuals who believed they were mistreated by the police to determine how gender impacts Black citizens’ perceptions of law enforcement. The researchers used data from the Gallup Organization’s yearly Minority Relations & Black-White Social Audit poll, which included a nationally representative sample of individuals. To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed selected data from the 850 Black individuals who self-reported being mistreated by police officers in the past 30 days to determine gender differences in perception of police misconduct. The results showed that age, region, and gender had an impact on a participant’s likelihood of reporting they had recently been treated unfairly by the police. Being older, from the south, and female decreased the individual’s likelihood of reporting police mistreatment. Being younger, from the north, and male increased an individual’s likelihood of reporting police mistreatment. Black men were less likely to report police mistreatment if they were older and had a higher income. The results confirmed the notion that there are gender differences between Black individuals on police perception. In the future, the authors recommend removing gender as a variable and focus on the multivariate factors to provide deeper insights to improve police-citizen relationships.