Narrative identity theorists have long held that individuals construct identities as a coherent tale of their past, present, and future selves. These life stories are structured along predictable scripts borrowed from cultural master narratives. Heretofore, legitimacy theorists have relied on social identity theory to explain legitimation processes. I propose integrating elements of narrative identity theory with social identity for a more complete legitimation theory. I analyze 92 in-depth interviews with individuals who encountered the police departments of Newark, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio. Respondents’ narratives followed common narrative scripts, suggesting a shared master narrative guiding interpretations of police encounters. A significant proportion of the sample interpreted their views of the police from a group-based lens, while an equally significant proportion used alternative narratives. An integration of social identity, narrative identity, and current legitimacy theory holds promise for a more comprehensive model of legitimation and a more complete theory of self.
AdlerJ. M.DunlopW. L.FivushR.LilgendahlJ. P.Lodi-SmithJ.McAdamsD. P.McLeanK. C.PasupathiM.SyedM. (2017). Research methods for studying narrative identity: A primer. Social Psychology and Personality Science, 8(5), 519–527.
2.
AjilA.Blount-HillK. (2020). “Writing the other as other”: Exploring the othered lens in academia using collaborative autoethnography. Decolonization of Criminology and Justice, 2(1), 83–108.
3.
AlexanderM. (2010). The new Jim Crow Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.
4.
BauerJ. J.McAdamsD. P.PalsJ. L. (2008). Narrative identity and eudaimonic well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 81–104.
5.
BellM. C. (2017). Police reform and the dismantling of legal estrangement. The Yale Law Journal, 126, 2054–2150.
6.
Blount-HillK. (2017, August). Legitimacy in decision-making: Increasing voter approval of municipal bonds. Government Finance Review. Government Finance Officers Association.
7.
Blount-HillK. (2020a). Advancing a social identity model of system attitudes. International Annals of Criminology, 57(1–2), 114–137.
8.
Blount-HillK. (2020b). Public perceptions of police. In LewandowskiC.BumgarnerJ. (Eds.), Criminal justice in America: The encyclopedia of crime, law enforcement, courts, and corrections. ABC-CLIO.
9.
Blount-HillK.St. JohnV. J. (2017a). Manufactured “mismatch”: Cultural incongruence and black experience in the academy. Race and Justice: An International Journal, 7(2), 110–126.
10.
Blount-HillK.St. JohnV. J. (2017b, November). “Manufactured” mismatch: Cultural incongruence and black experience in the academy [Research Blog]. The Office for the Advancement of Research, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.
11.
BottomsA.TankebeJ. (2012). Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 102(1), 119–170.
12.
BrewerM. B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17(5), 475–482.
13.
BrunsonR. K. (2007). “Police don’t like Black people”: African-American young men’s accumulated police experiences. Criminology & Public Policy, 6(1), 71–102.
14.
BrunsonR. K.MillerJ. (2006). Young black men and urban policing in the United States. British Journal of Criminology, 46, 613–640.
15.
BrunsonR. K.WadeB. A. (2019). “Oh hell no, we don’t talk to police”: Insights on the lack of cooperation in police investigations of urban gun violence. Criminology & Public Policy, 18(3), 623–648.
16.
BrunsonR. K.WeitzerR. (2009). Police relations with black and White youths in different urban neighborhoods. Urban Affairs Review, 44(6), 858–885.
17.
CobbinaJ. E. (2019). Hands up, don’t shoot: Why the protests in Ferguson and Baltimore matter, and how they changed America. New York University Press.
18.
CurryT. J.CurryG. (2018). On the perils of race neutrality and anti-blackness: Philosophy as an irreconcilable obstacle to (black) thought. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 77(3–4),8657–687.
19.
DenverM.EwaldA. (2018). Credentialing decisions and criminal records: A narrative approach. Criminology, 56(4), 715–749.
20.
DesmondM.PapachristosA. V.KirkD. S. (2016). Police violence and citizen crime reporting in the black community. American Sociological Review, 81(5), 857–876.
21.
DickinsonT.WrightR. (2017). The funny side of drug dealing: Risk, humor, and narrative identity. Criminology, 55(3), 691–720.
22.
FarmerP. (2004). An anthropology of structural violence. Current Anthropology, 45(3), 305–325.
23.
FeaginJ.BennefieldZ. (2014). Systemic racism and U.S. health care. Social Science & Medicine, 103, 7–14.
24.
GauJ. M.CorsaroN.StewartE. A.BrunsonR. K. (2012). Examining macro-level impacts on procedural justice and police legitimacy. Journal of Criminal Justice, 40, 333–343.
25.
GastonS.DohertyE. E. (2018). Why don’t more Black Americans offend? Testing a theory of African American offending’s ethnic-racial socialization hypothesis. Race and Justice, 8, 366–395.
26.
Georges-AbeyieD. E. (2006). Race, ethnicity, and social distance severity. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 30(2), 103–117.
27.
HammJ. A.TrinknerR.CarrJ. D. (2017). Fair process, trust, and cooperation: Moving toward an integrated framework of police legitimacy. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 44(9), 1183–1212.
28.
HoffmanD. D. (2016). The interface theory of perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(3), 157–161.
29.
HunterJ. A.KypriK.StokellN. M.BoyesM.O’BrienK. S.McMenaminK. E. (2004). Social identity, self-evaluation and in-group bias: The relative importance of particular domains of self-esteem to the in-group. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43(1), 59–81.
30.
JacksonJ.BradfordB.HoughM.MyhillA.QuintonP.TylerT. R. (2012). Why do people comply with the law? Legitimacy and the influence of legal institutions. British Journal of Criminology, 52, 1051–1071.
31.
JenkinsR. (2000). Categorization: Identity, social process and epistemology. Current Sociology, 48(3), 7–25.
32.
JonesC.GreeneH. T. (2016). Race discrimination, racial socialization, and offending trends among African American college students: A test of the theory of African American offending. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 32, 60–77.
33.
Jones-BrownD. (2007). Forever the symbolic assailant: The more things change, the more they remain the same. Criminology & Public Policy, 6(1), 103–122.
34.
KerrickM. R.HenryR. L. (2017). “Totally in love”: Evidence of a master narrative for how new mothers should feel about their babies. Sex Roles, 76, 1–16.
35.
KirkD. S.MatsudaM. (2011). Legal cynicism, collective efficacy, and the ecology of arrest. Criminology, 49(2), 443–472.
36.
KirkD. S.PapachristosA. V. (2011). Cultural mechanisms and the persistence of neighborhood violence. American Journal of Sociology, 116, 1190–1233.
37.
McAdamsD. P. (1985). Power, intimacy, and the life story: Personological inquiries into identity. Dorsey Press.
38.
McAdamsD. P. (2013). The psychological self as actor, agent, and author. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(3), 272–295.
39.
McAdamsD. P.GuoJ. (2015). Narrating the generative life. Psychological Science, 26(4), 475–483.
40.
McAdamsD. P.HanekK. J.DadaboJ. G. (2013). Themes of self-regulation in the life stories of religious American conservatives and liberals. Political Psychology, 34(2), 201–219.
41.
McAdamsD. P.McLeanK. C. (2013). Narrative identity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(3), 233–228.
42.
McIntoshP. (1989, July/August). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack [Peace and Freedom Magazine]. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
43.
McLeanK. C. (2008). The emergence of narrative identity. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(4), 1685–1702.
44.
McLeanK. C.LilgendahlJ. P.FordhamC.AlpertE.MarsdenE.SzymanowskiK.McAdamsD. P. (2018). Identity development in cultural context: The role of deviating from master narratives. Journal of Personality, 86, 631–651.
45.
McLeanK. C.SyedM. (2015). Personal, master, and alternative narratives: An integrative framework for understanding identity development in context. Human Development, 58(6), 318–349.
46.
NixJ.PickettJ. T.WolfeS. E. (2020). Testing a theoretical model of perceived audience legitimacy: The neglected linkage in the dialogic model of police-community relations. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 57(2), 217–259.
47.
O’BrienT. C.MearesT. L.TylerT. R. (2020). Reconciling police and communities with apologies, acknowledgements, or both: A controlled experiment. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 687, 202–215.
48.
O’BrienT. C.TylerT. R. (2019). Rebuilding trust between police & communities through procedural justice & reconciliation. Behavioral Science & Policy, 5(1), 35–50.
49.
O’BrienT. C.TylerT. R. (2020). Authorities and communities: Can authorities shape cooperation with communities on a group level?Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 26(1), 69–87.
50.
O’BrienT. C.TylerT. R.MearesT. L. (2020). Building popular legitimacy with reconciliatory gestures and participation: A community-level model of authority. Regulation & Governance, 14(4), 821–839.
51.
PalsJ. L.McAdamsD. P. (2004). The transformed self: A narrative understanding of posttraumatic growth. Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 65–69.
52.
PickensJ. (2005). Attitudes and perceptions. In BorkowskiN. (Ed.), Organizational behavior in health care (pp. 43–76). Jones and Bartlett.
53.
PresserL. (2009). The narratives of offenders. Theoretical Criminology, 13(2), 177–200.
54.
PresserL. (2016). Criminology and the narrative turn. Crime Media Culture, 12(2), 137–151.
RadburnM.Savigar-ShawL.StottC.TallentD.KyprianidesA. (2020). How do police officers talk about their encounters with the ‘public’? Group interaction, procedural justice and officer constructions of policing identities. Criminology & Criminal Justice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895820933912
57.
RadburnM.StottC. (2019). The social psychological processes of “procedural justice”: Concepts, critiques and opportunities. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 19(4), 421–438.
58.
RadburnM.StottC.BradfordB.RobinsonM. (2018). When is policing fair? Groups, identity and judgements of the procedural justice of coercive crowd policing. Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy, 28(6), 647–664.
59.
RodgersH. R.Jr. (1974). Toward explanation of the political efficacy and political cynicism of black adolescents: An exploratory study. American Journal of Political Science, 18(2), 257–282.
60.
SampsonR. J.BartuschD. J. (1998). Legal cynicism and (subcultural?) tolerance of deviance: The neighborhood context of racial differences. Law & Society Review, 52(4), 777–804.
61.
SchuckA. M.RosenbaumD. P. (2005). Global and neighborhood attitudes toward the police: Differentiation by race, ethnicity and type of contact. Journal of Qualitative Criminology, 21(4), 391–418.
62.
SingerJ. A. (2004). Narrative identity and meaning making across the adult lifespan: An introduction. Journal of Personality, 72(3), 437–460.
63.
SmithD.SchlaepferP.MajorK.DybleM.PageA. E.ThompsonJ.ChaudharyN.SalaliG. D.MaceR.AsteteL.NgalesM.ViniciusL.MiglianoA. B. (2017). Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling. Nature Communications, 8, Article 1853. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02036-8
64.
StetsJ. E.BurkeP. J. (2000). Identity theory and social identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63(3), 224–237.
65.
StrykerS. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A social structural version. Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Co.
66.
SwanerR.RamdathC.MartinezA.HahnJ.WalkerS. (2018). What do defendants really think? Procedural justice and legitimacy in the criminal justice system. Center for Court Innovation.
67.
TajfelH. (1969). Cognitive aspects of prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, 25(4), 79–97.
68.
TajfelH. (1972). “La catégorisation sociale” [Social categorization]. In MoscoviciS. (Ed.), Introduction à la Psychologie Sociale (Vol. 1, pp. 272–302). Larousse.
69.
TurnerJ. C.OakesP. J.HaslamS. A.McGartyC. (1994). Self and collective: Cognition and social context. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20(5), 454–463.
70.
TylerT. R. (1988). What is procedural justice? Criteria used by citizens to assess the fairness of legal procedures. Law and Society Review, 22, 103–135.
71.
TylerT. R. (2003). Procedural justice, legitimacy, and the effective rule of law. Crime and Justice, 30, 283–357.
72.
TylerT. R.BladerS. L. (2000). Cooperation in groups: Procedural justice, social identity, and behavioral engagement. Psychology Press.
73.
TylerT. R.HuoY. J. (2002). Trust in the law: Encouraging public cooperation with the police and courts. Russell Sage Foundation.
74.
TylerT. R.LindE. A. (1992). A relational model of authority in groups. In ZannaM. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 115–191). Elsevier.
75.
von HaldenwangC. (2017). The relevance of legitimation—A new framework for analysis. Contemporary Politics, 23(3), 269–286.
76.
WarrenP. Y. (2011). Perceptions of police disrespect during vehicle stops: A race-based analysis. Crime & Delinquency, 57(3), 356–376.
77.
WeitzerR. (1999). Citizens’ perceptions of police misconduct: Race and neighborhood context. Justice Quarterly, 16(4), 819–846.
78.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A. (2004). Race and perceptions of police misconduct. Social Problems, 51(3), 305–325.
79.
WeitzerR.TuchS. A.SkoganW. G. (2008). Police-community relations in a majority-black city. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45(4), 398–428.
