The police and those policed as intergroup par excellence : Current trends and future prospects

Abstract

In many communities, certain segments of the population do not have trust and confidence in the police. These issues are particularly intense in some impoverished minority communities in which people are more likely to fear the police than to trust them. Much can be learned about the patterned dynamics between police and communities from the study of intergroup relations generally, and intergroup communication more specifically. Unfortunately, these phenomena have not yet been well studied from an intergroup perspective. In this prologue to the special issue, “The Police and the Policed,” we introduce contemporary trends in police–community relations from an intergroup perspective, and we provide a brief overview of the articles appearing in the special issue. We close by highlighting key take-aways from this collection, articulating a vision for future research on police–community relations from an intergroup perspective.