“He did that because I was Black”: Black College Students Perceive Municipal Police, Not Campus Police, as Discriminating

ABSTRACT

This article examines qualitative data obtained from 66 Black college students about perceptions of their interactions with municipal police (MP) and campus police (CP). Participants described MP and CP as acting severely, but only attributed racial bias to MP. These findings are explored with respect to theories of procedural justice and legitimacy. They help to explain why participants viewed MP’s actions as racially biased, though it is less clear why CP’s actions were not perceived as such.

Notes

¹ To reduce verbiage, the term “university” refers to colleges and vice versa, and we refer to city police and county police as “municipal police,” though, technically, only a city is a municipality. Also, note that we focus entirely on Blacks because our sample included few Hispanics. Future research should examine Hispanic college students’ experiences with and perceptions of police, too. For research on Hispanics and social control, see, for example, Kubrin, Zatz, and Martinez (2012), Rios (2011), Solis, Portillos, and Brunson (2009).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Allen

Andrea Allen is associate professor of criminal justice at Clayton State University. Her research focuses on policing and is published in outlets such as Crime & Delinquency, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Police Quarterly, and Policing.

Scott Jacques

Scott Jacques is associate professor of criminal justice and criminology at Georgia State University. His research focuses on offender decision-making and theorizing method. For more information, visit www.scottjacques.us.