Predicting trust in police: the impact of instrumental and expressive concerns in street-identified Black-American men and women

Abstract

Purpose

While the past few decades have witnessed a substantial number of studies on public attitudes toward the police, a relatively thin line of inquiry has focused exclusively on low income urban Black-Americans, and especially street-identified Black populations. The purpose of this paper, however, is to examine trust in police amongst street-identified Black men and women.

Design/methodology/approach

Relying on a street participatory action research methodological approach, the authors collected survey data (N = 520) from two low-income unban Black neighborhoods, to examine the effects of an instrumental model versus an expressive model on procedural- and outcome-based trust in police.

Findings

The findings suggested a community sample of street-identified Black men and women were able to differentiate between procedural- and outcome-based trust. The instrumental model was better in predicting procedural-based trust in police, while the expressive model accounted better for outcome-based trust in police.

Research limitations/implications

Implications for street participatory action research methodology, future research and policy are also discussed.

Originality/value

This paper is an original manuscript.

Citation

Chambers, D.L., Payne, Y.A. and Sun, I. (2020), "Predicting trust in police: the impact of instrumental and expressive concerns in street-identified Black-American men and women", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 43 No. 6, pp. 917-933. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-01-2020-0012