FIND DATA: By Author | Journal | Sites   ANALYZE DATA: Help with R | SPSS | Stata | Excel   WHAT'S NEW? US Politics | Int'l Relations | Law & Courts
   FIND DATA: By Author | Journal | Sites   WHAT'S NEW? US Politics | IR | Law & Courts
If this link is broken, please report as broken. You can also submit updates (will be reviewed).
Race Shapes Perception of Police Shootings: Study Reveals Sharp Divides
Insights from the Field
race perception
motivated reasoning
ferguson dataset
police conduct
Law Courts Justice
POP
5 R files
2 text files
Dataverse
Seeing Blue in Black and White: Race and Perceptions of Officer-Involved Shootings was authored by Hakeem Jefferson, Fabian G. Neuner and Josh Pasek. It was published by Cambridge in POP in 2021.

This study examines divergent perceptions of officer-involved shootings following racial incidents. After the 2014 Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, researchers analyzed public reactions to understand how race influences interpretations of these events.

Key findings reveal two distinct processes driving perception differences:

• Whites showed stronger preference for information supporting justified officer actions

• Black Americans leaned toward narratives questioning police conduct

These disparities:

  • Stem from race-based motivated reasoning (selective interpretation based on identity)
  • Reflect differing prior beliefs about typical behaviors, with Ferguson data showing explicit divergence in these priors

The analysis demonstrates how racial divisions emerge even when controlling information. Summary judgments varied most significantly among strong racial group identifiers and those with divergent expectations about police conduct and Black civilians.

data
Find on Google Scholar
Find on JSTOR
Find on CUP
Perspectives on Politics
Podcast host Ryan