The 2017 French riots and trust in the police: A quasi-experimental approach

Abstract

On 2 February 2017, French police officers brutally abused a young black man, leading to the first wave of 2017 French riots. The present study exploits the coincidence that the focal event occurred during the survey period of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2016 (11 November 2016 – 11 March 2017) in France, thus providing the basis for a natural experiment on the effect of media reporting on police misconduct on trust in the police. Data are analysed by means of a regression discontinuity design (RDD) as well as more conventional regression analyses with heteroscedasticity robust standard errors. In line with procedural justice theory as well as institutional theory, the present study finds support for the notion that this special case of police misconduct did decrease trust in the police. In addition, people reporting a migrant background showed even less trust in the police after the event. Frequency of different media consumption does not appear to explain the deterioration of trust in the police after the event. The results of this study increase the internal and external validity of the assumption that trust in the police can be explained not only by personal experiences but also by the perceived unfair treatment of others. Results are robust to various placebo tests. There is some evidence that the effect seems to be short-lived, although the data basis is limited in this regard. Several fruitful approaches for future studies are discussed.