RT Article
T1 Improving African American confidence in law enforcement: Recruit to optimize procedural justice, not racial quotas
JF International journal of police science & management
VO 23
IS 2
SP 102
OP 118
A1 MacLean, Charles E.
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1759180858
AB Although a common maxim among many practitioners argues that police departments should recruit their way out of the African American confidence race gap by hiring more minority officers, that maxim is unfounded and redirects our recruitment efforts away from hiring to ensure procedural justice and police effectiveness—the two most powerful determinants of African American confidence in the police. The author’s nationwide survey revealed that African Americans living in cities with more racially representative law enforcement agencies were no more confident in local law enforcement than those living in cities where African Americans were underrepresented. That same survey proved, instead, that African American confidence is far higher where local police forces deliver procedural justice and effective policing than where local police forces are merely racially representative. This article presents the survey findings and explores the policy implications for law enforcement recruitment.
K1 minority recruitment
K1 Representative bureaucracy
K1 Procedural Justice
K1 Diversity
K1 Police
K1 civilian confidence
K1 African Americans
DO 10.1177/1461355720974698