Police violence against marginalized groups persists in many democracies. Yet, democratically-elected leaders may lack incentives to curb it because repressive policing often enjoys widespread support, and views toward police violence often mirror cleavages like partisanship and race. We posit that politicians leverage polarized attitudes toward police violence through repression-based appeals, justifying state coercion beyond the rule of law by framing marginalized groups as security threats. Using a survey experiment in Brazil, our results show that politicians derive political benefits from repression-based appeals through improved perceptions of competence, and pay a cost for criticizing police violence, particularly when they defy partisan expectations. We further demonstrate that politicians’ statements defending police violence can increase support for such killings, with important partisan heterogeneity. Our findings reveal that police violence is political violence: rather than representing an aberration or “bad apples,” politicians have incentives to strategically leverage repression-based appeals for political gain
This event is presented in collaboration with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
LOCATION:CGIS South, Room S216 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20260929T160000Z DTEND:20260929T173000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR