The Impact of Suspect Race and Precipitating Incident on Community Members’ Assessments of Deadly Force Reasonableness

• Author: Lorie A. Fridell,Christopher J. Marier
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10887679221112601
• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Date: 01 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Special Issue Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10887679221112601

Homicide Studies

2023, Vol. 27(1) 142 –166

© 2022 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/10887679221112601

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Special Issue Article

The Impact of Suspect Race

and Precipitating Incident

on Community Members’

Assessments of Deadly Force

Reasonableness

Lorie A. Fridell1 and Christopher J. Marier2

Abstract

The contrast between many community members’ views about the extent to which

force used by police is excessive and the criminal justice system’s determination of

same suggests a “reasonableness divide.” Using survey data from 3,600 nationally

representative adults, this study assessed one possible reason for this divide—that

community members evaluate the reasonableness of deadly force using factors that

are not considered in legal assessments. The results affirmed this divide—finding that

community members’ evaluations of deadly force incidents are impacted by the race

of the subject and by the precipitating event. Policy and research implications are

presented.

Keywords

public perceptions, use of deadly force, force reasonableness

Introduction

Much turmoil in U.S. society—as reflected in demonstrations and riots—emanates

from concerns about the police use of deadly force. While significant portions of

community members perceive that many incidents of deadly force are unjustified,

1University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

2Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Lorie A. Fridell, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, Mail Code SOC 107, Tampa, FL

33620, USA.

Email: lfridell@usf.edu

1112601HSXXXX10.1177/10887679221112601Homicide StudiesFridell and Marier

research-article2022

Fridell and Marier 143

police agencies and the criminal courts rarely find that force is legally unreasonable.

One possibility for this “divide” is that officers are not held to account when they

violate the law by using excessive deadly force. Another possibility is that commu-

nity members assess the reasonableness of deadly force using factors that do not

match the law.

In their seminal book, Evaluating Police Uses of Force, Stoughton et al. (2020)

suggest various perspectives or factors that might reflect the “community expecta-

tions standard” (p. 125) based on public discourse; community member consider-

ation of these factors would be counter to legal assessments. The purpose of the

current study is to assess whether community members use extra-legal factors to

assess force reasonableness. Using survey data from over 3600 adults who repre-

sent the U.S. population with regard to gender, age, and race/ethnicity, this study

tests experimentally the impact of two extra-legal factors on community members’

assessments of force reasonableness: (1) the race of the subject in the encounter and

(2) the seriousness of the offense that precipitated the encounter between the officer

and subject.

Study participants were presented with a scenario describing an incident in which

force was used by an officer in an encounter with a subject. In addition to providing

their views of the reasonableness of the force, participants provided demographic data

and information on their political orientation and confidence in police. These data

allow for an empirical assessment of the “community standards” for police use of

force to determine if, in fact, community members assess reasonableness using factors

that are not recognized in legal analyses. The results provide important information

related to one of the most divisive issues facing U.S. society today.

The “Reasonableness Divide”

Perceptions of excessive use of police force were the chief cause of the riots in the

1960s (U.S. National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders, 1968). Unrest linked to

police use of force continues to this day. Four different national polls estimated that

between 15 and 26 million people in the U.S. participated in demonstrations during the

month after George Floyd’s death, making the protests the largest movement in U.S.

history (Buchanan et al., 2020).

Polls indicate that the community concerns that lead to these demonstrations and

riots include perceptions that officers are not held to account for misuses of force (Pew

Research Center, 2016; Stafford & Fingerhut, 2020). These perceptions are consistent

with data on the frequency with which officers’ force is adjudged as reasonable by law

enforcement agencies (Hickman, 2006; Hickman & Poore, 2016; IACP, 2001) and the

criminal courts (Stinson & Wentzlof, 2019; see also Mapping Police Violence, 2021.)

This contrast between community views about the extent to which force used by police

is excessive and the criminal justice system’s determination of the same suggests a

“reasonableness divide.” One possible contributor to this divide is that community

members, when assessing force reasonableness, use factors that are not considered in

legal assessments.