Citizen Willingness to Hold a Police Officer Criminally Responsible for the Use of Deadly Force: Examining the Correlates of Finding Guilt.

This article examines factors influencing undergraduate students’ support for convicting and incarcerating a white campus police officer charged but not convicted for shooting and killing an unarmed Black citizen during a 2015 traffic stop at a large Midwestern university. The study finds that respondents who view police as soldiers in a "war on crime" (police-military equivalency) and those holding symbolically racist attitudes are more likely to oppose or remain neutral about convicting the officer, while conservative crime ideology was not a significant predictor. White respondents were more likely to be neutral rather than supportive of conviction, suggesting a form of racial indifference that may hinder police accountability. The research highlights the role of race-related attitudes and perceptions of policing in shaping public willingness to hold officers criminally responsible for deadly force, emphasizing challenges to achieving justice in such cases.