POLS 500A: Research Design
Research Summary
Black Cities/White Cities: Evaluating the Police
Michelle Fletcher
Prof. Stephen Bloom
Fall 2014
The article “Black Cities/White Cities: Evaluating the Police” by Susan E, Howell, Huey L. Perry, and Matthew Vile (2004) empirically tests the assumptions that many Americans have about citizen attitudes toward law enforcement agencies, and how citizens evaluate the police. Generally, research in this area involves performing a comparative analysis of citizen perceptions based on racial indicators among citizens in a single city, or multiple cities that are similar in size and demographics. However, for this article Howell et al. (2004) implemented a unique approach by examining the potential relationship …show more content…
The majority white cities included in the survey were Chicago, and Charlotte, NC; while the majority black cities included in the survey were Detroit, and New Orleans. The non-white populations of each city were oversampled by 40%, and the response rate generated an average of 263 black respondents across cities, and 256 white respondents across cities. The survey measured various dimensions related to the dependent variable evaluations of police (quality of protection, response time, suspect apprehension, courtesy, and use of excessive force), and dimensions related to the independent variable racial attitudes (symbolic racism, group conflict, linked fate, and black solidarity), demographics, increase/decrease in crime, ideology, and political party. The data collected from these measures were then used to measure the correlation between race and evaluations of police across the four …show more content…
In fact Howell et al. (2004) found that evaluations of police among black citizens remained consistent across the racial contexts of cities. However, there was a strong relationship -.30 or stronger between race and evaluation of police in majority white cities indicating greater racial polarization in these contexts. This relationship was also stronger than the relationship between crime and police evaluations. In those cities where citizens reported that they believed that crime had increased there was an 8%-10% drop in positive evaluations of police. But, white citizens reporting that they believed that crime had increased in majority black cities did express evaluate police lower than their nonwhite counterparts. Finally, overall whites were more likely to give negative evaluations of police in majority black cities than in majority white
Research Summary
Black Cities/White Cities: Evaluating the Police
Michelle Fletcher
Prof. Stephen Bloom
Fall 2014
The article “Black Cities/White Cities: Evaluating the Police” by Susan E, Howell, Huey L. Perry, and Matthew Vile (2004) empirically tests the assumptions that many Americans have about citizen attitudes toward law enforcement agencies, and how citizens evaluate the police. Generally, research in this area involves performing a comparative analysis of citizen perceptions based on racial indicators among citizens in a single city, or multiple cities that are similar in size and demographics. However, for this article Howell et al. (2004) implemented a unique approach by examining the potential relationship …show more content…
The majority white cities included in the survey were Chicago, and Charlotte, NC; while the majority black cities included in the survey were Detroit, and New Orleans. The non-white populations of each city were oversampled by 40%, and the response rate generated an average of 263 black respondents across cities, and 256 white respondents across cities. The survey measured various dimensions related to the dependent variable evaluations of police (quality of protection, response time, suspect apprehension, courtesy, and use of excessive force), and dimensions related to the independent variable racial attitudes (symbolic racism, group conflict, linked fate, and black solidarity), demographics, increase/decrease in crime, ideology, and political party. The data collected from these measures were then used to measure the correlation between race and evaluations of police across the four …show more content…
In fact Howell et al. (2004) found that evaluations of police among black citizens remained consistent across the racial contexts of cities. However, there was a strong relationship -.30 or stronger between race and evaluation of police in majority white cities indicating greater racial polarization in these contexts. This relationship was also stronger than the relationship between crime and police evaluations. In those cities where citizens reported that they believed that crime had increased there was an 8%-10% drop in positive evaluations of police. But, white citizens reporting that they believed that crime had increased in majority black cities did express evaluate police lower than their nonwhite counterparts. Finally, overall whites were more likely to give negative evaluations of police in majority black cities than in majority white