ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0001-6870-0642

Graduation Semester and Year

2018

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Sociology

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

First Advisor

Jason Shelton

Abstract

Another unarmed victim of police violence. Another acquitted officer. In recent years, this tragic course of events has repeated itself on multiple occasions in courtrooms, living rooms and social media spaces throughout the nation. Each new, widely-publicized fatal police encounter has added to an ongoing and contentious national debate around policing and minority rights. This intractable debate, which has been argued along racial lines, seems to be at an indefinite impasse. But what if this debate persists because we have not accounted for the role that both race and class play in shaping views towards use of force? Therefore, this paper contributes to the existing debate over police use for force by examining the effects of both racial group membership and class position on the beliefs of the black middle class. Specifically, this paper addresses the following questions: (1) How does class position effect attitudes towards reasonable use of force? (2) Are the effects of class position on approval attitudes experienced similarly by both blacks and whites? (3) Are higher status blacks more likely than lower status blacks to approve of use of force by police officers? Using data from the 1973 – 2016 years of the General Social Surveys (GSS), this study compares and contrasts middle class blacks’ beliefs about use of force by law enforcement with the attitudes of lower status blacks and middle class whites. Results indicate that blacks are generally less approving than whites of a law enforcement officer striking an adult male citizen. However, blacks increasingly approve of police use of force as their educational attainment and household income rates rise. These findings suggest that class position plays an influential role in shaping the attitudes of blacks towards police violence.

Keywords

Race and ethnicity, Class, Socioeconomic status, Policing, Use of force, Middle class, Middle class Blacks

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences | Sociology

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

Download

Included in

Sociology Commons

Share

COinS