The foundations of defiance - examining the psychological underpinnings of ethnic minority defiance toward police

Aug 23, 2026

Defiance operates as a potent form of protest against police oppression, yet citizen defiance can also undermine police effectiveness and elevate risks for both officers and the public. Evidence indicates that defiance varies across groups and frequently reflects reactions to disenfranchisement, police bias, and unfair treatment. This study examines drivers of defiance within two Australian ethnic minority communities by testing a theoretical model linking procedural injustice, identity threats, police legitimacy, and deﬁant responses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Defiance as protest and risk

Disenfranchisement, bias, and unfair treatment

Identity threat and theoretical framework

Policing and Society An International Journal of Research and Policy ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: [https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gpas20](https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gpas20) The foundations of defiance: examining the psychological underpinnings of ethnic minority defiance toward police Elise Sargeant, Kristina Murphy & Ben Bradford To cite this article: Elise Sargeant, Kristina Murphy & Ben Bradford (2023): The foundations of defiance: examining the psychological underpinnings of ethnic minority defiance toward police, Policing and Society, DOI: 10.1080/10439463.2023.2200251 To link to this article: [https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2023.2200251](https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2023.2200251) © 2023 The Author(s) . Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group | Published online: 18 Apr 2023. | | --- | | Submit your article to this journal | | Article views: 757 | | View related articles | | View Crossmark data | Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at [https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=gpas20](https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=gpas20) RESEARCH ARTICLE The foundations of deﬁance: examining the psychological underpinnings of ethnic minority deﬁance toward police Elise Sargeant a,b, Kristina Murphy a,b and Ben Bradford c aGriﬃth Criminology Institute, Griﬃth University, Brisbane, Australia; bSchool of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griﬃth University, Brisbane, Australia; cDept of Security and Crime Science, Faculty of Engineering Science, University College London, London, UK ABSTRACT Deﬁance can be a powerful mechanism of protest against police oppression. At the same time, citizen deﬁance to police authority is problematic for police and can cause injury to both police oﬃcers and the public. Research shows that some groups of people defy police more than others, and that deﬁance often represents a reaction to disenfranchisement, police bias and unfair treatment. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted that Black, First Nations peoples and racial/ethnic minority groups are more likely to experience problematic relationships with the police. This study focuses on understanding the factors that drive deﬁance toward police within two ethnic minority communities in Australia. Testing a new theoretical model, we ﬁnd that procedural injustice from police can create identity threats, thus explaining why some ethnic minority individuals choose to defy the police. Alternatively, procedural justice may reduce identity threats and deﬁance. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 18 November 2022 Accepted 3 April 2023 KEYWORDS police; ethnicity; minority; deﬁance; resistance; disengagement; motivational postures; police legitimacy Introduction Public deﬁance of police authority undoubtedly makes police work diﬃcult. Deﬁance can manifest in reduced engagement and cooperation with police and has the potential to elicit violent reactions from citizens and police alike (Alpert and Dunham 2004) . Yet, at the same time, deﬁance can be a powerful mechanism of protest in response to police oppression and unfair treatment. The Black Lives Matter movement is a salient example. As we have seen during this movement, deﬁance expressed toward police authority in the United States and elsewhere, signals dissatisfaction with the way that police wield power, indicating that police legitimacy may be declining, and that change is needed. While the Black Lives Matter movement primarily focusses on African American experiences, historical relationships between police and First Nations peoples, immigrant groups, and racial and ethnic minority groups in other contexts suggest that many minority groups experience procedural injustice and bias from police, and are subsequently less trusting of the police, less willing to report crime to the police, and more likely to defy police

FAQs

Why can defiance toward police be seen as both protest and a problem?

Defiance can protest police oppression and unfair treatment, but it also reduces engagement and cooperation and may provoke violent reactions from citizens and police.

What drives ethnic minority defiance toward police according to the study’s model?

The study tests whether procedural injustice from police creates identity threats, explaining why some individuals choose to defy police, while procedural justice may reduce identity threats and defiance.

How does the research connect procedural injustice to legitimacy and deﬁance?

It uses an integrated framework combining procedural injustice, identity threats, police legitimacy, and defiance, addressing that the relationship among these factors is not yet fully understood.

Aug 23, 2026

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