How Police Behavior Shapes Perceptions of Protests: Evidence from Black Lives Matter
Name
how-police-behavior-shapes-perceptions-of-protests-evidence-from-black-lives-matter.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
4.41 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2301ffe7c6896da65d3f5ce7036b5ef7
Author(s)
English, Jasmine
White, Ariel
Eckhouse, Laurel
Date Issued
March 7, 2025
Journal
Perspectives on Politics
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Citation
English J, White A, Eckhouse L. How Police Behavior Shapes Perceptions of Protests: Evidence from Black Lives Matter. Perspectives on Politics. 2025;23(4):1271-1285.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
As Black Lives Matter protests swept across the United States in recent years, protesters encountered a mix of police reactions: Some news reports described police in military gear and widespread arrests, whereas others reported minimal police involvement. We developed an original dataset of BLM protests that shows that police reactions varied widely, even when comparing protests with similar messages and tactics. We then investigated this variation with a survey experiment and found that observers are more likely to describe protesters as violent when a protest is met with a heavy police presence. These findings highlight the role of the police in shaping public perceptions of violence and social movements and extend a growing body of empirical research on BLM by shifting the focus from protest activity to the impact of protest policing.
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592724002731
