Data for: Public opinion on police misconduct

High-profile cases of police violence have given rise to contentious
debate across the globe, which has often erupted into protest and unrest.
These debates hinge on disagreements about whether police use of force is
wielded appropriately. Yet scholars know little about why individuals
interpret violent police encounters differently. To address this gap, we
fielded a survey experiment in Germany which is designed to probe whether
the victim's identity matters to public opinion (N=15,941). Our novel
design mimics the way news events unfold sequentially over time, allowing
us to measure whether eventual discriminatory beliefs persist even in the
face of mounting evidence. We show that respondents are less likely to
consider the actions of the police officers to constitute misconduct when
the victim has an immigrant name compared to a traditionally German name.
Importantly, these discriminatory beliefs remain even when respondents are
informed about various forms of evidence confirming that misconduct