Does Educating Students Influence Their Views About a Sensational Criminal Justice Event? An Experiment on the Chokehold Death of Mr. Eric Garner

Abstract

In this quasi-experiment, we measure changes in students’ views on police legality. We use the Eric Garner death in-custody video for the experiment. We recruited 95 student subjects, dividing them into two groups: one administered only publicly available facts (Partial Treatment) and the other the same plus training in law and police policy (Full Treatment). After seeing the video, a pre-test was administered to both groups to assess the initial attitudes and backgrounds of the subjects. Both groups then received their respective treatments. A post-test revealed significant shifts in viewpoints, especially evident in the group that received facts plus law and policy. Importantly, those who had preconceived negative attitudes toward police before being trained showed no differences compared to those without such views after the Full Treatment. Students did change their views, especially those in the Full Treatment group. Further implications and suggestions for future research are outlined.