Police Violence and Its Public Support

Abstract

The paper analyzes two models of social support for totalitarian social movements, the mass society model, and the class conflict or interest group model. Using national sur vey data, the authors formulate and test the implications of each of these models in terms of generating support for police vio lence among the mass public. With the exception of a positive relationship between education and rejection of police violence, the mass society model is not well supported by the data exam ined by the authors. Generally strong support is present for the class conflict model.