Study Finds That Black Americans Want Both Police Presence and Reform: Looking Beyond the Headlines
by Jo Ellen Nott
A new study, “On the Robustness of Black Americans’ Support for the Police: Evidence from a National Experiment” published in the May-June 2024 issue of the Journal of Criminal Justice, challenges the dominant narrative that Black Americans want less policing.
The research done by criminal justice experts at SUNY, Texas State University, and the University of Cincinnati reveals a more complex reality: Black communities overwhelmingly support maintaining or even increasing police presence while simultaneously desiring significant police reform. The authors claim that the media’s tendency to feed the public simplistic narratives often ignores subtle differences within demographic groups. This study specifically examines Black Americans’ attitudes towards policing.
While recent events might suggest a universal negative view of police among Black people, the data paint a different picture. Black Americans report high levels of fear of police brutality compared to their white counterparts. Notably, 42 percent of Black respondents feared being killed by police within five years, compared to just 11 percent of white respondents.
Despite this fear, a significant majority—81 percent of Black Americans expressed fear of police—still favor maintaining or increasing police presence and funding. This desire for police presence likely stems from the unequal impact of violence on Black communities. As Reason writer Billy Binion says, “Multiple things can be true at once.” Binion faults the media for presenting news that focuses on division and extremes and points out that by doing this, complexity is lost.
The authors of the study in the Journal of Criminal Justice suggest that Black Americans understand police are not a perfect solution because they solve fewer than half of the cases they investigate. For example, in 2022, the police were able to clear only 37 percent of violent offenses reported to them. However, the Black community instinctively knows that police presence deters criminal activity and offers a sense of security. This is further supported by a survey showing public safety as a much bigger concern for Black residents in Detroit compared to white residents.
USA Today and the Detroit Free Press surveys showed that 24 percent of Black residents in Detroit ranked public safety as the biggest issue in the city while only 10 percent of white survey takers said it was the biggest issue. These numbers would explain why white Detroiters are seemingly more open to decreasing funding levels for law enforcement than their Black counterparts. Interestingly enough, a mere three percent of Black respondents in Detroit reported that police reform was the most pressing issue; whereas nationally, Black Americans support police reform at a rate 20 percent higher than U.S. adults in general.
However, wanting more police does not mean there is satisfaction with the status quo. Black Americans express significantly lower confidence in police and a stronger desire for reform compared to the national average. This suggests a “cost-benefit analysis” mentality: Black communities see police as a necessary evil in combating crime, but they also recognize the need for significant reform to ensure fairer treatment.
The media often amplifies the most extreme voices, obscuring the different views within Black communities. Police brutality is a serious issue, but the data indicate a decline in police killings and point to a need for a more balanced news cycle. Binion wrote in a companion article, using statistics going back to the 1970s, that there has been a 69 percent drop in fatal police shootings across 18 major cities. Despite this, headlines from prominent news outlets have erroneously reported that deaths and violence at the hands of police have reached record highs in recent years.
The current conversation about Black Americans’ attitudes towards the police is heavily influenced by activism at the extremes and often presents a significantly worse picture than reality. Although these conversations may be well-intentioned and designed to prompt change, they often overlook the diversity of viewpoints within Black communities.
Source: Journal of Criminal Justice, Reason
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