It Goes Both Ways”
How Mixed Police Encounters Influence Young Black Men's Decisions to Engage
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8135362 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ajenai Clemmons (0000-0002-0541-8583, University of Denver, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1008-1033 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Race and Justice (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2153-3687 • E-ISSN: 2153-3687 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/21533687261419420 |
| OpenAlex | W7129065967 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 45 |
This study investigates the complex and often ambivalent perceptions of police held by young Black men in over- and under-policed neighborhoods in the United States. It focuses on how mixed prior encounters—both negative and positive—influence their expectations of future interactions, drawing on 21 in-depth interviews of 20–31-year-old men in Durham, North Carolina. Participants articulated nuanced attitudes that oscillated between alienation from officers’ violence and appreciation for officers’ service, reflecting a precarious sense of uncertainty about whether future encounters would be threatening or safe. Research reveals that mixed encounters can prompt both police avoidance as an adaptive response to navigating unpredictability and conditional willingness to engage police under specific circumstances they outline. Findings suggest cynicism represents a burden many wish to abandon but cannot without sustained positive change in policing practices
Alienation · Ambivalence · Cynicism · Perception · Suicide prevention · Wish · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Policing Practices and Perceptions
Pulled Over
Procedural Justice and Order Maintenance Policing
Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race–ethnicity, and sex
Experience, quality of life, and neighborhood context
Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of black Americans
Attitudes Toward the Police
The Influence of Race/Ethnicity, Social Class, and Neighborhood Context on Residents' Attitudes Toward the Police
Evaluating the relative impact of positive and negative encounters with police
Negativity Bias, Negativity Dominance, and Contagion
General perceptions of police mediate relationships between police contact and anticipated police behavior in imagined roadside encounters
More than race? Intragroup differences by gender and age in perceptions of police among street-identified Black men and women
Asymmetry in media effects on perceptions of police
Procedural justice, police legitimacy, and legal cynicism
Punished
Oh hell no, we don't talk to police”
Police Don't Like Black People”
Perceptions of Violent Encounters between Police and Young Black Men across Stakeholder Groups
Asymmetry in the Impact of Encounters with Police
The Rules of (Dis)engagement
The Sliding Scale of Snitching
Examining the nuance in adolescents’ police encounters
Exploring the dimensions of trust in the police among Chicago juveniles
We Never Call the Cops and Here Is Why
Public Cooperation With the Police in Ghana
Unpredictable and monetized contact with the police
Legal Cynicism, Collective Efficacy, and the Ecology of Arrest
Experience of the Expected?” Race and Ethnicity Differences in the Effects of Police Contact on Youth
I don't have time for drama”
Young Black Men and Urban Policing in the United States
Strategic Responses to Navigating Police Encounters among Black Baltimore Residents
Race, Gender, and Responses to the Police Among Ferguson Residents and Protesters
Strategic Responses to the Police Among Inner-City Youth
Police Are Our Government
Surveillance and System Avoidance
Code Saturation Versus Meaning Saturation
Police Violence and Citizen Crime Reporting in the Black Community
Unfair by Design
Situational Trust
Racially Biased Policing
Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct
Governing Marginality
Cultural Mechanisms and the Persistence of Neighborhood Violence
Anticipatory Violence and Health Among Black Adults in the United States
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |