Late adolescents entering college intending a career as police ofﬁcers hold more right-leaning views than their peers

dzara016 — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 18:10:54 +0000

Late adolescents entering college intending a career as police ofﬁcers hold more right-leaning views than their peers dzara016 Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:10 More Publications Reny, Tyler T., Marcel F. Roman, Benjamin J. Newman, and David O. Sears October 20, 2025

A new article coauthored by Professor Benjamin J. Newman of the UC Riverside Department of Political Science has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), one of the world’s leading scientific journals. The study, titled “Late Adolescents Entering College Intending a Career as Police Officers Hold More Right-Leaning Views than Their Peers,” was coauthored with Tyler T. Reny (Claremont Graduate University), Marcel F. Roman (Harvard University), and David O. Sears (University of California, Los Angeles).

Drawing on survey data from over 13 million late adolescents collected across 44 years, the research examines whether those who plan to pursue a career in law enforcement already differ politically and socially from their peers before entering the police academy. The findings reveal that college-bound students intending to become police officers tend to hold more right-leaning views on topics such as race relations, immigration, gender roles, and criminal justice compared to their peers—particularly when compared to those undecided about their career paths.

Interestingly, these patterns are weaker among non-White respondents and notably reduced among women, suggesting that gender and racial diversity play distinct roles in shaping political orientation among prospective police officers. The study offers an important contribution to ongoing debates about bias and reform in policing, suggesting that differences in attitudes may emerge long before individuals begin formal police training.

As the authors write, addressing bias in law enforcement may require attention to the earliest stages of recruitment and candidate development, including broadening the applicant pool and implementing early bias training.

“Our findings suggest that to reduce bias in policing, reform efforts must begin before the academy,” Newman explains. “We need to understand not just how police are trained, but who chooses to become a police officer in the first place.”

The article is available open access from PNAS:
Reny, Tyler T., Marcel F. Roman, Benjamin J. Newman, and David O. Sears. “Late Adolescents Entering College Intending a Career as Police Officers Hold More Right-Leaning Views than Their Peers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122, no. 32 (2025). https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2500220122

American Immigration Attitudes and NIMBYism

dzara016 — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 17:11:33 +0000

American Immigration Attitudes and NIMBYism dzara016 Mon, 10/06/2025 - 10:11 More Publications Jieun Lee and Harry G. Muttram October 03, 2025

In recent years, prominent Republican elites have instituted statewide migrant transportation programs in which asylum-seeking migrants are “bused” to liberal cities across the country. These programs are often justified by invoking NIMBYism (not-in-my-backyard), suggesting that when people must consider the effects of immigration policy in terms of their own community, their attitudes toward immigrants may shift.

Despite these claims, existing scholarship has yet to document whether and how American immigration preferences vary by spatial scale—or to evaluate the relative importance of such variation compared to other determinants of immigration attitudes.

Findings from a conjoint experiment conducted by UCR graduate students Jieun Lee and Harry G. Muttram reveal that Americans, on average, oppose immigrants proposed to move into their neighborhoods. However, spatial scale does not significantly alter considerations at the national, state, or city level. The relative importance of this NIMBY effect is modest compared to other individual-level characteristics of an immigrant. Moreover, despite elite claims of “liberal hypocrisy” in immigration, the study finds no evidence that the NIMBY effect varies by partisanship—both Democrats and Republicans exhibit similar, modest preferences against immigrants expected to move to their neighborhoods.

For the full article, see:
Lee, Jieun, and Harry G. Muttram. 2025. “American Immigration Attitudes and NIMBYism: Do Immigration Preferences Vary by Spatial Scale?” PS: Political Science & Politics, October 3, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096525101467.

public opinion

Late adolescents entering college intending a career as police ofﬁcers hold more right-leaning views than their peers

American Immigration Attitudes and NIMBYism