Cop Watching as Social Control: Extending Donald Black’s Theory of Self-Help to Race and Police Videotaping

Abstract

Using survey-experimental data, we examine how race affects Americans’ willingness to videotape police detaining a teenage suspect. Donald Black’s theory of social control, with its focus on self-help, provides a theoretical context for expecting Black Americans to be more likely to serve as “cop watchers.” Consistent with this theory, Black respondents are more willing (70%) than White respondents (42%) to record police-citizen encounters, especially when the citizen is Black. Willingness to record is not associated with officer race, but it is lessened by the presence of other bystanders recording the incident. That Black Americans are more willing to exert social control as “cop watchers,” especially to help other Black civilians, indicates that cell phones now serve as a “candid camera” that exposes officers’ misbehavior.