The 2017 French riots and trust in the police: A quasi-experimental approach

Abstract

On 2 February 2017, French police officers brutally abused a young black man, leading to the first wave of 2017 French riots. The present study exploits the coincidence that the focal event occurred during the survey period of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2016 (11 November 2016 – 11 March 2017) in France, thus providing the basis for a natural experiment on the effect of media reporting on police misconduct on trust in the police. Data are analysed by means of a regression discontinuity design (RDD) as well as more conventional regression analyses with heteroscedasticity robust standard errors. In line with procedural justice theory as well as institutional theory, the present study finds support for the notion that this special case of police misconduct did decrease trust in the police. In addition, people reporting a migrant background showed even less trust in the police after the event. Frequency of different media consumption does not appear to explain the deterioration of trust in the police after the event. The results of this study increase the internal and external validity of the assumption that trust in the police can be explained not only by personal experiences but also by the perceived unfair treatment of others. Results are robust to various placebo tests. There is some evidence that the effect seems to be short-lived, although the data basis is limited in this regard. Several fruitful approaches for future studies are discussed.

Protest policing and public perceptions of police: Evidence from a natural experiment in Germany

“…Second, this study overcomes previous methodological limitations to estimate causal effects of incidents on public attitudes. Previous research on the effects of high-profile policing incidents on attitudes toward the police is either limited by (1) a lack of causal inference perspectives (Graziano, 2018), (2) a lack of nationally representative survey data (Hohl et al, 2012;Kaminski & Jefferis, 1998;Kochel, 2019;Kochel & Skogan, 2021;Lasley, 1994;White et al, 2018) and/or (3) a lack of appropriate measuring instruments (Nägel & Lutter, 2021). These issues call into question the internal, external and construct validity of previous findings.…”

“…Given that the vast majority of research on perceptions of police, and high-profile police incidents in general, has been conducted in the United States (Jefferis et al, 1997;Kochel, 2019;Kochel & Skogan, 2021;Lasley, 1994;Reny & Newman, 2021;Tuch & Weitzer, 1997;Weitzer, 2002;White et al, 2018), but see (Curtice, 2021;Hohl et al, 2012;Kääriäinen et al, 2016;Nägel & Lutter, 2021;Thomassen et al, 2014), we lack a more general understanding of change in public attitudes towards the police in other national and institutional contexts (Roché & Oberwittler, 2017;Sahin et al, 2017;Sato, 2017). Compared to the US and other European countries, trust in police in Germany is generally high (Guzy & Hirtenlehner, 2015).…”

“…In addition, previous research suggests that opinionmobilizing events tend to affect public opinion only briefly (Ares. & Hernández, 2017;Zaller, 1992), including attitudes towards the police (Nägel & Lutter, 2021;Reny & Newman, 2021).…”

“…On the one hand, a study on the impact of the 2011 London disorder showed little to no effect on attitudes towards the police (Hohl et al, 2012), whereas analyses of police misconduct in Finland (Kääriäinen et al, 2016) and police failures during a terrorist attack in Norway (Thomassen et al, 2014) suggest that trust may even increase following certain controversial incidents. On the other hand, Nägel & Lutter (2021) found that trust in police significantly declined following a serious incident of police violence coupled with protests in France. Similar to studies in the US, the authors found that the negative effect was relatively short-lived for the general population, but more persistent for ethnic minorities.…”

“…Generally, these mechanisms coincide with notions of fairness, voice, and neutrality or impartiality, which comprise key elements of procedural justice policing (Mazerolle et al, 2013;Trinkner & Tyler, 2016;Tyler & Blader, 2003). The use of excessive force or repressive tactics against protestors violates these principles and can damage the trustworthiness of police (Curtice & Behlendorf, 2021;Nägel & Lutter, 2021;Perry et al, 2017). Research that has used disaggregated measures of perceptions of police and legitimacy has found that the use of excessive force and violence during protests is associated with declines in perceptions of police fairness, feelings of obligation to obey, and normative alignment with police (Curtice, 2021;Metcalfe & Pickett, 2021).…”