RT Article
T1 Why interracial police-civilian interpersonal interactions can go poorly: police officer stereotype threat
JF Psychology, crime & law
VO 29
IS 6
SP 584
OP 610
A1 Burke, Kelly C.
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1852221372
AB Racially charged incidents between the police and Black civilians have sparked massive protests over racial disparities in policing. This has led many to stereotype police officers as racists, and officers themselves are aware of this. By integrating and extending prior theoretical models, this paper proposes a novel theoretical model of the various paths through which the activation of stereotype threat – officers’ fear of confirming the ‘racist police officer’ stereotype – can influence when and why White police officers display negative interpersonal behavior during routine encounters with Black civilians. The model theorizes that the activation of stereotype threat, coupled with the contextual anxiety inherent in police encounters, heightens officers’ anxiety and self-regulatory effort, leading to cognitive depletion and regulatory failure. This results in decreased empathy, ultimately ending with officers confirming the racist police officer stereotype. The paper reviews social psychological and criminal justice literature to support this theory and discusses the theoretical, practical, and research implications.
K1 interpersonal interactions
K1 Race
K1 interracial interactions
K1 stereotype threat
K1 Policing
DO 10.1080/1068316X.2022.2030335