THE EFFECT OF POLICE MISCONDUCT ON PUBLIC ATTITUDES: A QUASI-EXPERIMENT

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article uses data derived from more than 1,000 interviews in an effort to disentangle the effects of the Rodney King beating and its aftermath on public attitudes towards the police. Although the conclusions we draw from our analyses of the data are speculative, we suggest that those who lived in neighborhoods, characterized by some crime and disorder, had their attitudes little affected by the incidents, while the college educated were most affected.