Assessing Police Violence and Bias Against Black U.S. Americans: Development and Validation of the Beliefs About Law Enforcement Scale

ABSTRACT

Measurement of U.S. American community members’ perceptions of police historically has failed to assess police bias, violence, and accountability in Black communities. Rooted in critical race theory, conflict theory, and a substantial corpus of self-reported survey research methodology, the present study describes the development of the Beliefs About Law Enforcement (BALE) scale. Guided by a multidisciplinary and multiracial panel, whose members possess the requisite substantive and methodological expertise, BALE scale items were constructed and factor analytic techniques were performed using a purposive sample of 288 MSW, BSW, and undergraduate child and family study students. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the factor structure of the original 18-item BALE scale (Model 1). A subsequent confirmatory factor analysis yielded indexes indicating that the fit for the second order 15-item model was improved (Model 2) as compared to Model 1. The BALE scale achieved good internal consistency reliability (α=.87, composite reliability=.96). Limitations of the study are delineated and the utility of the BALE scale in developing and furthering knowledge in social work education and research is discussed.

Notes

¹ Consistent with the U.S. American context and with Tolliver et al. (2016), the term Black is intentionally used throughout this article to encompass those who identify as Black, African American, or both, and to connote race, which is at the core of all police interactions with Black U.S. Americans.

² For details on how the Ferguson Police Department demonstrated a pattern of violating the civil rights of African Americans in that city, see U.S. Department of Justice (2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine Lemieux

Catherine M. Lemieux is the Margaret Champagne Womack Professor in Addictive Disorders at Louisiana State University,

Youn Kim

Youn Kyoung Kim is assistant professor at Louisiana State University,

Kimberly M. Brown

Kimberly M. Brown is a social worker employed by Our Lady of the Lake Mental and Behavioral Health in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,

Cassandra D. Chaney

Cassandra D. Chaney is professor at Louisiana State University,

Ray V. Robertson

Ray V. Robertson is associate professor at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, and

Erma J. Borskey

Erma J. Borskey is professor and chair of the Department of Social Work at Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical College.