Cultivation theory: The impact of crime media's portrayal of race on the desire to become a U.S. police officer
| Author | Deborah Sibila,Wendi Pollock,Natalia D Tapia |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/14613557211036555 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
Cultivation theory: The impact of crime
media’s portrayal of race on the desire
to become a U.S. police officer
Wendi Pollock
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, USA
Natalia D Tapia
Lewis University, USA
Deborah Sibila
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, USA
Abstract
The death of George Floyd on 25 May 2020 again left people asking why U.S. police officers so commonly resort to the
use of deadly force when interacting with Black individuals. The current article proposes that media, combined with cul-
tivation theory and social cognition concepts may create implicit biases that are potential contributors to this problem.
Police officers have a greater vulnerability to these biases because intake of crime-related media positively predicts their
interest in selecting law enforcement as a career. Other predictors of an interest in working in law enforcement, and
implications of these findings, are discussed.
Keywords
Police–public interaction, race, gender
Submitted 31 May 2021, accepted 7 Jul 2021
On 25 May 2020 the world watched video footage of a
White police officer from the Minneapolis Minnesota
Police Department, kneeling on the neck of a Black man
named George Floyd, for almost nine minutes, until he
died. Protests ensued around the world demanding that
police be held accountable and that police departments
across the United States address the systematic racism
that is arguably present in their ranks, with some even
calling for abolition of police all together (“George
Floyd”, 2020).
In the midst of this national call to action, many people
were left asking how any police officer could think that it is
allowable to kneel on the neck of an unarmed Black man,
who is already in handcuffs, until his life is extinguished.
Although the answer to that question is complex, part of
the explanation may be rooted in a theory known as cultiva-
tion theory. Cultivation theory proposes that television
(TV) viewers adopt inaccurate views about reality, based
on extended and repetitive exposure to homogenous mes-
sages concerning, among other topics, crime victimization
and perpetration (Morgan et al., 2009).
An example of cultivation theory can be seen in a 2015
study that found that local news stations in New York
Corresponding author:
Wendi Pollock,Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, 6300 Ocean Drive,
Corpus Christi, TX 78412, USA.
Email: Wendi.Pollock@tamucc.edu
Original Research Article
International Journal of
Police Science & Management
2022, Vol. 24(1) 42–52
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14613557211036555
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