“I’ve Never Been Straight Up Robbed Like That”: Resident Perceptions and Experiences of Inner-City Police Raids

Authors

Marta-Marika Urbanik, University of Alberta
Carolyn Greene, Athabasca University

Abstract

"Empirical research has consistently demonstrated that residents of disadvantaged and racialized inner-city neighborhoods across North America are subjected to disproportionate and omnipresent policing. Consequently, relationships between law enforcement officials and marginalized community members are often strained. Whilst a robust body of literature has examined how citizens perceive “every day” policing practices such as “carding,” stop and search, etc., it remains unclear how citizens perceive more invasive policing encounters—such as police raids. Drawing upon 35 interviews with residents of Toronto’s inner-city, this paper explores how community members experience, make sense of, and talk about police raids. Our data uncover widespread perceptions of nefariously motivated police misconduct, raise questions about how residents anticipate and expect police to treat them, and highlight nuances in how these experiences shape police legitimacy views. We argue that how residents perceive police to behave during raids matters, as this can damage perceptions of police legitimacy for some residents, while merely reaffirming existing views for others."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Urbanik, Marta-Marika and Greene, Carolyn (2020) "“I’ve Never Been Straight Up Robbed Like That”: Resident Perceptions and Experiences of Inner-City Police Raids," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 9: No. 1, Article 12.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol9/iss1/12