Confirming or resisting the ‘racist cop’ stereotype?: the importance of a police officer’s ‘guardian’ identity in moderating support for procedural justice

ABSTRACT

Police have been criticized for their biased treatment of minorities. While many officers do not hold prejudicial attitudes toward minorities, discrimination continues. Stereotype threat research offers one possible explanation for why this is so. Paradoxically, studies reveal that officers who feel more threatened by the ‘racist cop’ stereotype rely more on coercive force in interactions with minorities. This perpetuates the view that police are racist. This study examines whether officers can overcome the negative consequences of experiencing stereotype threat. It focuses on the link between stereotype threat and officers’ support for procedural justice policing, and examines how social identity moderates this relationship. Using survey data from 307 police officers (22.5% females, 11.1% non-Australian ancestry, and 69.4% general duties officers), we find that stereotype threat is associated with reduced support for procedural justice, but is moderated by how officers self-identify. Officers who identify more strongly as ‘guardians’ (i.e. they emphasize policing as a service) are more likely to display stereotype resistance; that is, they are better able to resist the negative consequences of the ‘racist cop’ stereotype. Those who identify less strongly as ‘guardian’ officers, in contrast, fall victim to stereotype threat and display stereotype conformity. Implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Policing
• procedural justice
• stereotype threat
• stereotype resistance
• guardian identity

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Queensland Police Service (QPS) for their assistance with this research. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and are not those of the QPS. Responsibility for any errors of omission or commission remains with the authors. The QPS expressly disclaims any liability for any damage resulting from the use of the material contained in this publication and will not be responsible for any loss, howsoever arising, from use of or reliance on this material. Kristina Murphy is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Grant (Grant No: FT180100139). The authors have no financial or non-financial conflicts of interest to declare.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The BLM movement was established in 2013 in response to the police shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. It is a political and social movement that highlights racism, discrimination and inequality experienced by black people. Supporters of the movement often come together to protest incidents of police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people.

2 Ethics approval for the survey was obtained through Griffith University.

3 While this alpha is somewhat low, removal of the item that had the lowest loading in the factor analysis did not alter the alpha score substantially (alpha increased from .69 to .73). As the scale was based on an existing scale, it was decided to retain the item in the final scale because its removal did not alter any of the findings reported in the Results section.

4 Although somewhat tangential to the focus of the current study, there are a number of potential drivers of this relationship that may be worth exploring in future research, including the influence of officer role specialization or seniority, and the influence of time spent in highly disadvantaged and high crime locales, on the embrace of a guardian policing identity.

5 Variance Inflation Factor scores revealed no issues with multicollinearity in the model (the highest VIF score was 2.79).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council: [Grant Number FT180100139].