African Americans Attitudes towards Police
The George Washington University

Abstract

Past experiences have shown that African Americans tend to have a more hostile relationship with police officers than other races. Research from multiple scholars confirms that there is in fact a correlation between a person’s race and the attitude they have towards officers. This experiment aims to verify that race is responsible for this difference in attitude. A survey containing multiple demographic questions and inquiries about attitudes and reactions to police officers was distributed to my Research Methods class as well as my family and friends. The results of this
Such sentiments have been passed down fro generations and made many African Americans such as myself wonder if all ethnicities express such hostility towards officers. This experiment aims to investigate African Americans’ attitudes towards police as compared to Caucasians. I created a survey that asks for specific demographic information as well as deep inquiries on one’s internal feelings toward police. Through surveying people from my Research Methods class and family and friends, it should become clear if blacks in fact have different thoughts and feelings about officers than whites. I predicted that African Americans have a worse attitude towards police officers than Caucasians.

Method

Participants

There are 23 participants that partook in my study. It consisted of 70% females and 30% males, 61% African Americans and 39% Caucasians, 39% upper class, 43% middle class, and 18% lower class. 52% of participants live in urban areas, 48% reside in suburban neighborhoods, and 0% in rural. The mean age of participants is between 20-30.

Design

This study is designed to discover if the dependent variable, attitudes towards police, is determined by any demographic information, particularly race. In order to determine this relationship, participants are asked several demographic information such as gender, race, age, socioeconomic background, and area of residence that is recorded. Participants are then asked several questions to