Intersectionality of race, class, and gender in predicting police satisfaction

Abstract

Although an intersectional approach has been taken by various social scientists to examine criminal justice issues, our literature review reveals that, to date, no studies have explored citizen perceptions of police from this perspective. As researchers, we challenge the convenience of using merely collective demographic measures; instead, we suggest that overlooking social class, gender, and race subgroup interactions masks important variations in patterns and etiological understandings of public attitudes toward the police. Using data obtained from citizens who had recent contact with police, we take an intersectional approach to examine the main and combined effects of gender, social class, and race on citizen perceptions of police. The main purpose of this study is to address a significant gap in literature.