Street Stops and Police Legitimacy: Teachable Moments in Young Urban Men's Legal Socialization

TLDR: In this article, the authors examined the influence of street stops on the legal socialization of young men and found that the impact of involuntary contact with the police was mediated by evaluations of the fairness of police actions and judgments about whether the police were acting lawfully.

Abstract: An examination of the influence of street stops on the legal socialization of young men showed an association between the number of police stops they see or experience and a diminished sense of police legitimacy. This association was not primarily a consequence of the number of stops or of the degree of police intrusion during those stops. Rather, the impact of involuntary contact with the police was mediated by evaluations of the fairness of police actions and judgments about whether the police were acting lawfully. Whether the police were viewed as exercising their authority fairly and lawfully shaped the impact of stops on respondents' general judgments about police legitimacy. Fairness and lawfulness judgments, in turn, were influenced by the number of stops and the degree of police intrusion during those stops. Similarly, judgments of justice and lawfulness shaped the estimated influence of judgments of the general character of police behavior in the community on general perceptions of police legitimacy. These results suggest that the widespread use of street stops undermined legitimacy. Lowered legitimacy had an influence on both law abidingness and the willingness to cooperate with legal authorities. The findings show that people were influenced by perceptions of police injustice/illegality.

Figures

Table 3. OLS Regressions of Personal past Year stop Experiences on Legitimacy (b, SE, p).

Table 2. OLS Regressions of Lifetime Personal and General Stop Experience on Police Legitimacy (b, SE, p)

Table 6. OLS Regressions of Legitimacy of Police on Law Related

Table 5. OLS Regression of Stop Exposure on Personal and General Evaluations of Police Behavior (b, SE)

Table 4. OLS Regressions of Respondent Perceptions of Neighborhood Stop Actions on Perceived Legitimacy (b, SE, p)

Table 1: Sample Characteristics (N=1,261)a

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions mentioned in the paper "Street stops and police legitimacy: teachable moments in young urban men’s legal socialization" ?

Whether the police were viewed as exercising their authority fairly and lawfully shaped the impact of stops on respondent ’ s general judgments about police legitimacy. Lowered legitimacy had an influence on both law abidingness and the willingness to cooperate with legal authorities. These results suggest that the widespread use of street stops undermined legitimacy. 

Q2. What were the strongest predictors of police legitimacy?

In other words, whether the police threatened or used force or were humiliating or disrespectful were the strongest predictors of respondents’ assessments of police legitimacy. 

Q3. What is the importance of perceived legitimacy of the police in law-related behaviors?

Cooperation with the courts – in the form of jury service – again suggests the importance of perceived legitimacy of the police in law-related behaviors. 

Q4. How many respondents had no contact during the past year?

Within thesample, 549 respondents indicated some past year personal contact (including either car or street stops), while 712 indicated they had had no contact (44%). 

Q5. What is the effect of the negative views of police conduct?

These negative views of police conduct suggest that once subjects have a personalbenchmark or basis of comparison, future stops appear to be seen as increasingly unreasonable and antagonizing. 

Q6. What factors were included in the predictors of police legitimacy?

The predictors included legitimacy and factors related to the manner in whichpolice conduct stops in the respondent’s neighborhood, e.g. frequency, intrusiveness, and legality.