Understanding Police Alternatives

Widespread concerns about mass incarceration and recent incidents of police brutality have sparked policy demands to reduce the scope of policing in U.S. society, including calls to defund the police. However, there is limited research on the true extent of civilian demand for reducing the scope of policing. In this project, we conduct a two-part survey experiment to evaluate civilian demand for police and police alternatives under various issues and scenarios. We conduct the first survey with a population of U.S.-based experts from academia, community organizing, law, and policing to collect expert opinions and recommendations on when civilians should or should not involve the police in response to a given issue or scenario. We conduct the second survey as an experiment with an online sample of U.S.-based adults in which we evaluate how information treatments about the risk of police violence towards people who appear to have symptoms of mental illness or to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol affect their demand for police intervention under a variety of issues and scenarios.

Academic Year
2023-2024
Duke Principal Investigator(s)
Primary Funding Agency
NICHD/DRPC Pilot
Award Year