A Neglected Problem: Understanding the Effects of Personal and Vicarious Trauma on African Americans’ Attitudes Toward the Police

Date01 October 2021
Published date01 October 2021
DOI10.1177/00938548211006756
Subject MatterArticles
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, 2021, Vol. 48, No. 10, October 2021, 1366 –1389.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00938548211006756
Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions
© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology
1366
A NEGLECTED PROBLEM
Understanding the Effects of Personal and Vicarious
Trauma on African Americans’ Attitudes Toward the
Police
DANIEL K. PRYCE
Old Dominion University
AJIMA OLAGHERE
Temple University
ROBERT A. BROWN
North Carolina Central University
VONDELL M. DAVIS
Satterfield Law, PLLC
The relationship between the police and African Americans has had a contentious history for decades. To explore this topic
further, we interviewed 77 African Americans in the City of Durham, NC, about the declining relationship between their
community and the police. We find that African Americans’ perceptions of the police are nuanced and complicated by per-
sonal experiences, vicarious experiences of relatives and friends, and news from social media and television regarding polic-
ing practices and treatment, including police harassment and/or brutality. We characterize these direct and vicarious
experiences as the transmission of trauma. Even for the proportion of African Americans who had positive perceptions and
interactions with the police, their views of the police seemed to be further complicated by broader concerns of discriminatory
treatment. We proffer solutions to improve the relationship between the police and African Americans. The implications of
our findings for future research are also discussed.
Keywords: African Americans; policing; sources of views on police; perceptions of police; policing practices; vicarious
trauma
INTRODUCTION
Trauma is defined as an “inescapably stressful event that overwhelms people’s existing
coping mechanisms” (Van Der Kolk & Fisler, 1995, p. 2). The transmission of trauma refers
AUTHORS’ NOTE: We extend our deepest gratitude to the four anonymous reviewers, Associate Editor Jim
Ogloff, and Editor Robert Morgan for their feedback on earlier versions of our manuscript. We have no known
conflict of interest to disclose. This research was supported with a grant from North Carolina Central
University, Durham, NC. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Daniel K. Pryce,
Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, College of Arts & Letters, Old Dominion University, 6038
Batten, Norfolk, VA 23529; e-mail: dpryce@odu.edu.
1006756CJBXXX10.1177/00938548211006756Criminal Justice and BehaviorPryce et al. / Effects of Personal and Vicarious Trauma
research-article2021
Pryce et al. / EFFECTS OF PERSONAL AND VICARIOUS TRAUMA 1367
to the enduring effects of a person’s negative experiences on others, including parents,
progenies, and other relatives. Kahane-Nissenbaum (2011) noted that trauma results from a
sense of loss due to the inability to process emotions stemming from a traumatic event,
leading to feelings of helplessness. Bryant-Davis et al. (2017) noted that trauma, examined
through the lens of police brutality against Blacks, results in flashbacks and nightmares,
even when the sufferers prefer to not remember the brutality they suffered at the hands of
the police. Thus, trauma from police brutality may explain why some African Americans
run from the police, as well as remain hypervigilant in the community.
Empirical research has pointed to the negative effects of parental transmission of trauma
to progeny, including the distrust of people and a pervasive fear of danger (Braga et al.,
2012; Danieli, 1981). This article examines transmission of trauma using a criminological
lens (also see Brunson, 2007; Brunson & Weitzer, 2011; Feagin, 1991). Specifically, we
explore the possibility of whether the transmission of personal and vicarious trauma from
police interactions was reflected in African Americans’ attitudes toward the police. In his
study of African American1 youth in St. Louis, MO, Brunson (2007) pointed out that, while
83% of the participants had experienced harassment directly at the hands of the police, 90%
of participants noted that they knew someone who had suffered police harassment. These
findings thus point to the importance of assessing both personal and vicarious experiences
when studying trauma transmission in the Black community.
The first contact a citizen is likely to make with the criminal justice system is with a
police officer; this initial contact generally takes the form of a traffic stop (Davis et al.,
2018). The extant literature generally shows that African Americans are less trusting of the
police (Gau & Brunson, 2015; Peck, 2015; Pryce & Chenane, 2021; Tuch & Weitzer, 1997),
and believe that legal authorities subject Blacks to greater punitive decisions (Hurwitz &
Peffley, 2005; Johnson, 2007). This frayed relationship between the police and the Black
community is exacerbated by highly publicized deaths of African American men, women,
and youth2 (Dowler & Zawilski, 2007; Peck, 2015).
African Americans’ disproportionate contact with and representation in the U.S. criminal
justice system, relative to the group’s percentage in the U.S. population, are well docu-
mented (Dunn, 2010). For example, differential treatment thesis argues that racial dispari-
ties are a result of covert and overt discrimination directed at Blacks and Latinos by those
tasked with enforcing the law (Hinton & Cook, 2020). Compared to Whites, Blacks are
more likely to be stopped unlawfully while walking and driving (Epp et al., 2014; Gelman
et al., 2007), targeted more for drug dealing (Beckett et al., 2006), stereotyped as violent
and dangerous (Bobo & Kluegel, 1997; Johnson, 2001), and arrested (Kochel et al., 2011).
Indeed, findings from Kochel et al.’s (2011) meta-analysis of 23 different datasets spanning
research published from 1968 to 2006 showed that, “[on] average, the chances of a minority
suspect being arrested were found to be 30 percent greater than a White suspect” (p. 498).
Regarding corrections and the disparate treatment of Blacks in the United States, as of
2018, the Black male incarceration rate was 5.8 times as high as the White male incarcera-
tion rate, and the Black female incarceration rate was about two times the rate of White
female incarceration (Carson, 2020).
Some scholars have argued that there is widespread belief among Blacks and the poor that
they are constantly being discriminated against by authority figures, such as the police (Hagan
& Albonetti, 1982). Discrimination against Blacks is rooted in a long history of Black subju-
gation, with Black offenders continually subjected to a disproportionate enforcement of the

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