| Tensions between police forces and Black communities spilled onto the streets in Los Angles, New York, Philadelphia, and many other major cities including Toronto as Black people protested the jury's acquittal of the White police officers who were filmed repeatedly beating Rodney King, a Black man, in Los Angeles. Demonstrations in Toronto, after the acquittal of the police officers, were one of several factors that led to the establishment of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System in October 1992. One of the Commission's many activities included a survey of Blacks, Chinese, and White people in Metropolitan Toronto.
Between March and May 1994, the Institute for Social Research at York University conducted a telephone survey with 1,257 residents of Metropolitan Toronto for the Commission. The primary focus of the survey was to collect information from a random sample of Black (n= 417), Chinese (n=405), and White (n=435) Torontonians about their experiences with, and perceptions of, the criminal justice system. In the survey respondents were asked to compare police treatment of five groups of people: poor people as compared to wealthy people, younger to older people, people who do not speak English to those who do, Blacks to Whites, and Chinese to Whites.
Two questions were used for each of the five comparisons. The first asked:
"In general, do you think the police treat poor people the same as wealthy people?"
There were five response categories: yes, no, sometimes they are treated the same and sometimes differently, not sure or don't know, and refused to answer. Respondents who said that police treated poor people differently were asked a second question:
"Do you think [the police] treat poor people much better, better, worse, or much worse than wealthy people?"
In addition to the "much better" and "much worse" responses that were read aloud to respondents, interviewers were able, when appropriate, to code the respondent's answer as "police treat the groups the same." The same pair of questions was used for each of the five comparisons.
When asked the second question, virtually all respondents said police treated poor people either worse, or much worse, than wealthy people. In order to simplify the discussion, the small proportion of people who said poor people were treated better than wealthy people were assigned to same category as those who said police treated the two groups the same. The same re-coding was used for all five comparisons.
A majority of Torontonians, from all three racial groups, are not confident that the police in Metropolitan Toronto treat all members of society equally. Seventy-two percent of the Blacks, 46 percent of the Chinese, and 60 percent of Whites said that police treat poor people worse than they treat wealthy people (see Table 1). Only 16 percent of Blacks, 37 percent of Chinese, and 29 percent of Whites thought the police treat poor people the same as wealthy people. The remaining survey respondents said police treatment depended on the circumstances or they did not answer the question. Of the 15 sets of comparisons (the five questions for each of the three racial groups), the only comparison for which the majority of a group said the police treated two groups the same was for the assessment of police treatment of Chinese people by White respondents (61 percent). In 11 of the 15 comparisons, at least 50 percent of the respondents said police treat the disadvantaged group worse than the advantaged group.
In three of the other four comparisons, Blacks are more likely than Chinese or Whites to question the extent to which police treat different groups of people the same way. Blacks (78 percent) are more likely to say police treat young people worse than older people, than are Chinese or White respondents (60 and 71 percent, respectively). Blacks are also more likely to say police "treat Blacks worse than Whites" and "Chinese worse than Whites" than are Chinese or White survey respondents. Chinese respondents were, as was the case for the question about police treatment of poor people, the group least likely to say police treat young people worse than older people. On the questions of police treatment of those who do not speak English well, police treatment of Black people, and police treatment of Chinese people, the group most likely to say police treat the groups the same are White respondents.
The one comparison for which Black respondents were not the group most likely to question the extent to which police treat a disadvantaged group worse is the question on police treatment of people "who do not speak English well." For this comparison, Chinese respondents are most likely to question police treatment. Because Chinese respondents are more likely to have a non-English mother tongue, they may be more likely to have experienced problems, or to know others who have experienced problems, as a result of limited English skills.
Black survey respondents (54 percent) are more likely than Chinese survey respondents (46 percent) to say Chinese people are treated worse than White people by the police. The difference between Black and Chinese survey respondents is larger with respect to the proportions who say the police treat Chinese people the same as White people. Only 25 percent of Black respondents give this answer compared to 42 percent of the Chinese respondents. Potential explanations for this response pattern are intriguing.
One possible hypothesis is provided by the overall response of the two groups. A majority of Blacks always think police treat the minority group worse than the comparison group and 80 percent of Blacks say that police treat Black people worse than White people. For Blacks, there is a general perception that police treat minority groups unfairly and, because the Chinese are a minority group, Blacks may assume that Chinese people receive worse treatment by the police. The different rate of non-response to the two questions by Black respondents supports this hypothesis: only 3 percent of Blacks are not sure how to answer the question about police treatment of Blacks but 18 percent are not sure how to answer the question about police treatment of Chinese. Conversely, with the exception of the question about police treatment of those who do not speak English, Chinese respondents are less critical of police than are Black respondents.
Missing from the data presented in the table are factors other than race that may co-vary with attitudes about how police treat different groups of people. For example, the finding that 50 percent of White survey respondents think that police treat Black people worse than White people does not mean that Whites with higher levels of education have the same views about police treatment of Blacks as those with lower levels of education. A regression was used to determine the effect of education, age, income, sex, and other variables on respondents' assessment of police treatment of minority groups. Results indicate that race is the single best predictor of how respondents answered the questions about police treatment of the groups, even after variation in education, income, age, and other factors are considered.
Both Black and Chinese respondents who identify themselves as visible minorities are more critical of the police than Black and Chinese who do not identify themselves as members of a visible minority group. After controlling for race, higher levels of education are also found to be associated with an increased probability that respondents will say that police treat minority groups worse than non-minority groups.
The extent to which the survey respondents think worse treatment of minority groups by police is acceptable was not asked in the survey. Given the traditionally high level of public support for police, it is possible that different treatment of minority groups is accepted by the public as a reasonable way for police to behave. In order to more fully understand the issues around police treatment of minority groups, however, research needs to be undertaken on the extent to which the public condones or condemns unequal police behaviour towards minority groups. |
