Beyond street‐level procedural justice: Social construction, policy shift, and ethnic disparities in confidence in government institutions

Abstract

AbstractPunishment‐oriented policy can undermine confidence in government institutions among those who collectively share unfavorable social constructions of the policy's target group, even without having personally experienced negative bureaucratic encounters. As an empirical test, this study investigates the effect of the passage of Arizona S.B. 1070 and copycat immigration enforcement laws in five additional states on confidence in the local police. Using multi‐year survey data from the Pew Research Center, the difference‐in‐differences analyses demonstrate that these laws had a substantially more negative influence on confidence in police effectiveness and police use of force among Hispanics/Latinos compared with the rest of society. Given that the implementation of these laws were delayed and ultimately either blocked or restricted by the courts, the findings suggest that ethnic minorities' skepticism toward government institutions may be due not only to poor street‐level procedural justice, but also to the unfavorable social constructions embodied in high‐profile policy shifts.