July 2022: Special Issue – Legitimacy with a Focus on Ethnic-Racial Minorities

This special issue examines the study of legitimacy with a focus on racial–ethnic minority relationships in criminal justice system. The violent and senseless death of George Floyd in the United States on 25 May 2020 has galvanized the recent international Black Lives Matter movement and represented one of the many tragedies in the history of the global racialized criminal justice system, Canada included. The criminal justice system of Canada has a disturbing and problematic history of oppression and colonialism. Against this historical backdrop, however, Canada has been able to develop its own research on a number of key themes, voice these concerns on scientific grounds, and pave its own way towards a more inclusive multicultural future. The special issue is part of the efforts during the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, which witnessed a short invocation of police emergency powers in Ottawa.

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Police Legitimacy in Ethnic–Racially and Economically Stratified Democracies

Liqun Cao

The issue of police legitimacy has increasingly occupied the attention of criminologists in the new millennium. Yet the study of police legitimacy is not without some controversies. This article provides a critical examination of some of the key themes emerging from the scientific literature on police legitimacy, specifically confidence in the police and procedural justice. In doing so, it juxtaposes democratic policing theory to the study of police legitimacy. Among other things, it is posited that the issue of race/ethnicity remains understudied in criminological research in both Canada and the United States. This is particularly true with respect to differential treatment within the criminal justice system across race/ethnic groups. One of the hallmarks of democratic policing is its even-handedness and the fairness of law enforcement interventions. The root cause of ethnic–racial animosity must be explained if we want to understand police legitimacy fully in a society that has formally adopted a multicultural identity. It is concluded that police legitimacy should be understood within the tension between the tall order of democratic principles and the reality of social and ethnic–racial stratification.

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Racial Diversity, Majority–Minority Gap, and Confidence in the Criminal Justice System

Yue Liu, Huiqun Wang, Jinjin Liu, Tony Huiquan Zhang

Racial status, that is, majority/minority identity, affects an individual’s confidence in the criminal justice system, and this effect could vary across social contexts. We analyzed people’s confidence in the criminal justice system comparatively in 88 societies using the World Values Survey (1981–2020). Results from the hierarchical linear models showed the following patterns: (1) Racial majority members display higher confidence in the criminal justice system than minority members; (2) the majority advantage in confidence is greater when racial diversity increases; (3) the majority advantage is most salient in societies with Black or Arabic majorities. The results suggest that majority members’ higher trust in order institutions is associated with perceived advantages and social comparison with minority members. Our findings reveal the profound interactive effects of racial status and context on confidence in the criminal justice system, shed light on racial diversity, and contribute new knowledge to public opinion studies.

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Racial/Ethnic Connection with Confidence in the Police: Equal Treatment Matters

Ling Ren, Fei Luo, Kyler Nielson

Recent discussions on confidence in the police by race/ethnicity call for shifting the research focus from whether race/ethnicity matters to why and how it matters. The purpose of this article is to decipher the mediating role of the quality of police treatment in a nuanced study of racial impact on confidence in the police. Data were collected from a two-wave random-sample telephone survey of approximately 2400 residents in Houston, TX. The results confirm the expected effect of race/ethnicity on confidence in the police, net of neighborhood contexts and respondents’ demographics. More importantly, we found that the three measures tapping into the quality of police treatment during police–resident encounters partially mediate the race/ethnicity effect on views of police. Perceived equal treatment emerged as having the strongest effect. When the combined race/ethnicity sample was divided into three racial/ethnic subsamples, perceived equal treatment exerted the largest effects on confidence in the police both within and across the groups. Its effect is most pronounced for the Black subsample. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

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“It Just Makes You Have More Problems”: An Examination of Anti-snitching Codes among Black Youths in Toronto

Julius Haag

Subcultural codes against compliance with the police, or “snitching,” have factored prominently in public and law enforcement discourses related to urban violence and crime prevention. However, scholarship on these issues focuses almost entirely on the United States. This study investigates attitudes toward compliance with the police and perceptions of snitching among a sample of a Black youths who reside in socially and economically marginalized neighbourhoods in Toronto. Drawing on 32 in-depth interviews, I examine how perceptions of community safety and experiences with policing have impacted young people’s willingness to report crimes and comply with police investigations. Contrary to popular discourses, being seen speaking with police or providing information did not necessarily constitute snitching. Rather, consistent with prior research, a complex set of variables, including age, gender, and the perceived seriousness of the crime, all factored in determining what constituted snitching and when someone was considered a snitch. My findings challenge the essentializing nature of popular discourses on snitching while also highlighting how diminished perceptions of police legitimacy and efficacy have impacted young people’s willingness to report crimes and comply with police investigations. Finally, I discuss the implications of my findings for efforts to reform the police and improve police–community relations.

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“Stop Resisting or You’re Gonna Get It Again”: Police Use of Force in a Canadian Crime Reality Television Show

Ethan Pohl

Extant research suggests that crime reality television advances biased narratives about offenders, police officers, and the nature of crime. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the prevalence, severity, and proportionality of police use of force in Under Arrest, a Canadian crime reality television show. Using a content analysis of all 65 Under Arrest episodes, research reveals that police use of physical force is portrayed in nearly half of vignettes, and over half of force used is excessive force. Logistic regression indicates that the racial composition of the suspect pool does not predict use of force when controlling for other relevant variables. However, suspect race is the strongest predictor of excessive force even when controlling for initial crime seriousness, gender, suspect intoxication, and weapon possession. Results indicate that Under Arrest contributes to law and order ideology by portraying police use of force as a necessary and justified tool for controlling crime committed by racialized suspects.

June 9, 2023
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