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
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Robertson, Christopher Everett, "RACE, CLASS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS USE OF FORCE BY POLICE" (2018). Sociology & Anthropology Theses. 90.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/sociologyanthropology_theses/90
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington