When Black Mothers Meet Law Enforcement

Law enforcement agencies are an important extension of the state, tasked with keeping communities safe and protecting citizens’ basic rights (Justice and Meares, Reference Justice and Meares2014; Meares, Reference Meares2016; Turner and Shum, Reference Turner and Shum2025). Maintaining trust between citizens and police officers is imperative to the legitimacy of criminal justice institutions as well as the democratic process (Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Epp et al., Reference Epp, Maynard-Moody and Haider-Markel2014; Fagan, Tyler, and Meares, Reference Fagan, Tyler and Meares2016). However, due to the social and geographical isolation of predominantly Black communities, coupled with the racist, sexist and domineering nature of law enforcement, certain groups are predetermined and targeted to be overexposed to involuntary police contact (Tigges, Browne, and Green, Reference Tigges, Browne and Green1998; Cohen and Dawson, Reference Cohen and Dawson1993; Walker, Reference Walker2020b).

Democratic governance, according to Putnam (Reference Putnam1993), must include trust from citizens and their willingness to participate in the process. If citizens lose trust in government and the democratic process, there is a breakdown in the legitimacy of the state (Putnam, Reference Putnam1993). Previous research demonstrates that groups in “race-class subjugated communities” are often targeted by law enforcement institutions, who “exercise social control by means of coercion, containment, repression, surveillance, regulation, predation, discipline and violence” and are limited in their ability to respond (Weaver and Lerman, Reference Weaver and Lerman2010; Rios Reference Rios2011; Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Soss and Weaver, Reference Soss and Weaver2017). These communities are often overpoliced and underpoliced at the same time, citing law enforcement officers as much less responsive to Black community members seeking assistance while disguising the need to dominate and control Black citizens as preventing crime (Brunson, Reference Brunson2007; Burch, Reference Burch2013; Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Epp et al., Reference Epp, Maynard-Moody and Haider-Markel2014; Williams, Ocean and Nanda, Reference Williams, Ocean and Nanda2014). The disproportionate effects of over-policing in poor Black communities cause many residents to perceive police as essentially ineffective, inherently biased, and take considerable precautions to avoid them (Brunson, Reference Brunson2007; Soss and Weaver, Reference Soss and Weaver2017).

The expansion of media coverage and the recording of police misconduct have reignited conversations around modern-day policing practices, the unfair treatment of Black citizens, and where Black women enter these conversations (Richie, Reference Richie2012; Ritchie, Reference Ritchie2017; Carew, 2018). As criminality is often framed through a capitalist, racist, and patriarchal lens, the criminal justice system works to the disadvantage of Black mothers as themselves and their children are criminalized in social hierarchies (Bell, Reference Bell2016; Roberts,Reference Roberts1993; Desmond and Valdez, Reference Desmond and Valdez2012; Roberts, Reference Roberts2011). Black mothers who live in race-class subjugated communities are often victims of oppressive social structures that impede opportunities for their families to gain social mobility and make them targets for violent state control (Richie, Reference Richie2012; Desmond and Valdez, Reference Desmond and Valdez2012; Roberts, Reference Roberts1993; Roberts, Reference Roberts2011; Crenshaw, 2020). Living in communities with higher rates of concentrated crime overexposes Black mothers to violence, under-resourced schools, fewer quality housing options, and low-quality healthcare, all simultaneously increasing their largely unwarranted contact with police (Roberts, Reference Roberts2011; Desmond and Valdez, Reference Desmond and Valdez2012; Bell, Reference Bell2016; Malone Gonzalez, Reference Malone Gonzalez2022). Black mothers learn through their voluntary and involuntary encounters with the state that law enforcement does not see them or their families as worthy of protection and fair treatment under the law, yet they are often tasked with being the primary source of protection for their families (Roberts, Reference Roberts1993; Justice and Meares, Reference Justice and Meares2014; McClain, Reference McClain2019; Lee, Porter, and Comfort, Reference Lee, Porter and Comfort2014).

Direct and Indirect Police Contact

Scholarships on criminal justice contact note that citizens interact with the police in several ways (violent and non-violent), including many day-to-day interactions that define the police-citizen relationship (Burch, Reference Burch2013; Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Walker, Reference Walker2020b; Christiani and Shoub, Reference Christiani and Shoub2022). The scope of the research in this area also contends that the type of police contact matters, as differing contact yields varying effects on perceptions and participation (Rosenbaum et al., Reference Rosenbaum, Schuck, Costello, Hawkins and Ring2005; Comfort, Reference Comfort2016; Burch, Reference Burch2013; Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Christiani and Shoub, Reference Christiani and Shoub2022). Negative contact has been said to have a much more significant impact on the psyche of citizens than positive and/or what Christiani and Shoub refer to as “light contact,” and this is not limited to personal encounters (Skogan, Reference Skogan2006; Christiani and Shoub, Reference Christiani and Shoub2022). Indirect or vicarious contact, including having to experience loved ones or community members being harassed, arrested, or assaulted, has been shown to have an even stronger influence on attitudes and mobilizes political engagement (Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Walker, Reference Walker2020b).

However, data on the implications of direct and indirect police contact on Black women are limited (Richie Reference Richie2012; Ritchie Reference Ritchie2017; Lindsey 2023). The framing of Black women as less worthy or less deserving enables society to dismiss their experiences and trauma, a dynamic that, as intersectionality theory highlights, stems from the overlapping effects of racism and sexism, rendering their struggles invisible (Crenshaw, Reference Crenshaw1991; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011). As Dorothy Roberts argues, Black mothers, particularly those who are poor and reliant on welfare, are often criminalized not only for their economic status but for their motherhood itself, leading to excessive and punitive contact with law enforcement as a form of state control over Black families (2011). Black women are disproportionately victims of death by law enforcement, being 1.4 times more likely to be killed by police (Harris and Cortés, Reference Harris and Cortés2022) and more than 3 times more likely to be arrested during police initiated stops than white women (Prison Policy Initiative, 2019; Wang, Reference Wang2023).

Several well-documented incidents of Black mothers being direct (i.e., during traffic and foot stops, searches, the serving of warrants and citations, and arrests) victims of unwarranted police contact resulted in violence. In 2015, a former Oklahoma Police Department officer was charged and convicted of raping eight Black women, many of whom are mothers, during traffic stops as well as in the women’s homes (Carbado, Reference Carbado2016). That same year, Maleatra Montenez was sexually assaulted by a Syracuse Police Department officer in front of her newborn child (Jacobs, Reference Jacobs2017). These cases, while framed in the media as isolated events, happen frequently to Black mothers and often go unaddressed. Perpetrators are rarely punished as these women often lack the institutional support necessary (Richie, Reference Richie2012; Ritchie, Reference Ritchie2017). Anecdotal evidence also suggests that Black women fear contacting police because of previous experiences of discriminatory police misconduct, perceived lack of concern for their issues, victim-blaming, and additional harm to themselves or family members (Jacobs, Reference Jacobs2017).

Black mothers are also impacted by indirect or vicarious police contact through their roles as parents and through the process of network marginalization (Sewell et al., Reference Sewell, Feldman, Ray, Gilbert, Jefferson and Lee2021). Criminal justice contact of Black families places a larger financial burden on Black mothers who are often the primary points of contact for their children when arrested or incarcerated (Gurusami, Reference Gurusami2019; Sewell et al., Reference Sewell, Feldman, Ray, Gilbert, Jefferson and Lee2021; Christensen, Turney, and Park Jang, Reference Christensen, Turney and Park Jang2025), and are also more often head of household, making greater financial contributions to household incomes (Percheski and Gibson-Davis Reference Percheski and Gibson-Davis2020). Also, there has been an increase in the introduction of legislation labeled as holding parents accountable for the deviant behavior of children. States such as Georgia, Maryland, and Tennessee recently introduced legislation that seeks to punish parents of poorly behaving children, targeting Black families and leaving them vulnerable to increased negative police contact through the policing of their children (Babb, Reference Babb2025).

Black youth experience the effects of concentrated policing in their daily activities, including constant police surveillance in neighborhoods and militarized policing in schools (Brunson, Reference Brunson2007; Rios, Reference Rios2011; Chesney-Lind, 2014). Violent policing practices detrimentally affect Black children as they are approximately 4 times more likely to be suspended or expelled from school and 4.7 times more likely to end up in juvenile detention centers for infractions, including missing too much class or fighting (Morris, Reference Morris2016; Crichlow-Ball, Cornell, & Huang, Reference Crichlow-Ball, Cornell and Huang2022). Young Black men are often targets of baseless stop-and-frisks and traffic stops because their dress or vehicle of choice is deemed suspicious (Bruson and Miller, Reference Brunson and Miller2006; Brunson, Reference Brunson2007; Rios, Reference Rios2011). Black girls are criminalized and significantly higher rates than their white counterparts, being six times more likely to be suspended and 4 times more likely to be arrested during school hours (Morris, Reference Morris2016; Malone Gonzalez, Reference Malone Gonzalez2022). Black children are also far more likely than their white peers to experience “adultification,” where they are sentenced as adults and labeled as more culpable by police and are 8.5 times more likely to be tried as an adult than whites and are murdered by police 6 times more often than white children (Carbado and Rock, Reference Carbado and Rock2016; Morris, Reference Morris2016; Cobbina-Dungy and Jones-Brown, Reference Cobbina-Dungy and Jones-Brown2023). Thus, Black mothers’ conceptualization of law enforcement is one based on fear and constraint, leading them to take more untraditional modes to protect themselves and their children from police harm (Cohen, 2010; McClain, Reference McClain2019; Brantley, Reference Brantley2025).

These incidents of frequent negative criminal justice contact “educate” Black mothers on their position and influence within society, while also shaping their perceptions of government (Prowse, Weaver, and Meares, Reference Prowse, Weaver and Meares2020; Meares, Reference Meares2016; Justice and Meares, Reference Justice and Meares2014; Anoll et al., Reference Anoll, Epp and Israel-Trummel2022). Reference Fagan, Tyler and MearesFagan, Tyler, and Meares argue that public stops and arrests are a form of public shaming and an attempt to solidify police officers’ stronghold on power and control in communities (2016). Concentrated policing and the shame suppress Black mothers’ political engagement, causing them to be mistrustful of the democratic process and withdraw from political activity as they view police as an extension of governmental control (Soss 2017; Harris-Perry Reference Harris-Perry2011; Burch Reference Burch2013; Anoll et al., Reference Anoll, Epp and Israel-Trummel2022; Ben-Menachem and Morris 2022). However, this effect is situational as there are cases where frequent police surveillance mobilizes communities as they seek redress through non-traditional political means (Lee, Porter, and Comfort Reference Lee, Porter and Comfort2014; Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Walker, 2020; Christiani and Shoub, Reference Christiani and Shoub2022). This research adds to these conversations by highlighting the instances when Black mothers are mobilized and what motivates this behavior.

Black Motherhood and Community-Based Political Activity

Maternal status has been shown to have life-changing effects on many Black women’s daily activities, friends, financial status, and perspectives on society (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Edwards, Reference Edwards2022; Elliot, Powell, and Brenton, 2013). However, Black motherhood is often restricted due to white patriarchal structures that prevent them from accessing certain resources white mothers may have (Roberts, Reference Roberts2011). Black feminist scholarship has expanded conversations on the impact of motherhood on Black women’s lives by focusing on the differing experiences these women face (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Simien, Reference Simien2005; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011; Jordan-Zachary, Reference Jordan-Zachery2017; Zachery and Alexander-Floyd, 2018). These scholars conceptualize a Black feminist identity as a shared understanding of the discrimination, violence, and oppression Black women face based on their racial and gender group status that informs political behaviors and attitudes (Gay and Tate, Reference Gay and Tate1998; Collins, Reference Collins2004; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011; Simien, Reference Simien2005; Jordan-Zachery and Alexander-Floyd, Reference Jordan-Zachery and Alexander-Floyd2018).

There is some substantial research suggesting that being a mother influences political identity and has a galvanizing effect (Greenlee, Reference Greenlee2014). However, much of the literature on the politicized motherhood focuses on white middle-class women and ignores the unique political perspectives and activities of Black mothers (Hays, Reference Hays1996; Elliot, Powell, and Brenton Reference Elliot, Powell and Brenton2015; Dawson, Reference Dawson2001; Collins, Reference Collins2000; Nash, 2018; Jordan-Zachary, Reference Jordan-Zachery2017; Dow, Reference Dow2019; Brantley, Reference Brantley2025). Some Black feminist scholars argue that Black mothers engage in the emotional, social, and political labor of intensive “motherwork” to secure better outcomes for their children and communities (Edwards, Reference Edwards2022; Collins, Reference Collins2000; hooks, 1990; Brantley, Reference Brantley2025). Intensive motherwork emphasizes the tenets of “good mothering,” which require sacrificing money, time, and energy and protecting children above oneself (Hays, Reference Hays1996; Elliot, Powell, and Brenton, Reference Elliot, Powell and Brenton2015; Brantley, Reference Brantley2025; Christensen, Turney, and Park Jang, Reference Christensen, Turney and Park Jang2025). Intensive “motherwork” takes on several unique forms as Black mothers must navigate oppression while also protecting their children from both community and state violence using several different strategies including hypervigilance, instilling racial pride, warning children of potential harms, monitoring their children’s peer groups and activities in their children, as well as utilizing family and community supports (Davis, Reference Davis2016:Harris and Amutah-Onukagha,Reference Harris and Amutah-Onukagha2019; Malone Gonzales, Reference Malone Gonzalez2022; Brantley, Reference Brantley2025).

As an ideology, intensive “motherwork” offers us an intersectional framework for investigating the politics of Black women caregivers by highlighting the political strategies they use to cope with and avoid institutional racism and sexism through political means (Edwards, Reference Edwards2022; Dow, Reference Dow2019; Collins, Reference Collins2000; Nash, 2018; Jordan-Zachary, Reference Jordan-Zachery2017; Brantley, Reference Brantley2025). Studies on Black mothers also argue that they engage in motherwork practices as a way of negotiating their position within political spaces (Fuentes, Reference Fuentes2013). They often leverage their positions as witnesses and vicarious victims of police violence as opportunities to collect evidence, create networks, and de-escalate violence (Malone Gonzalez and Deckard, Reference Malone Gonzalez and Deckard2024).

Intensive “motherwork” differs from the original conceptualization of intensive mothering as it emphasizes self-determination through community (Hays, Reference Hays1996; Collins Reference Collins2000; Edwards Reference Edwards2022). Black mothers understand that their sustainability and survival is determined by collaboration and collectivism, moving beyond the individual and focusing on the overall well-being of the community (Collins, Reference Collins2000). They also acknowledge the capital they possess as a group as opposed to maintaining an individualistic mindset (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Edwards, Reference Edwards2022; Farris and Holman, 2013). While access to formal political activity, including voting, donating to political campaigns, and running for office, has been limited to Black mothers, they have consistently participated through informal political means (Naples Reference Naples1992; Edwards Reference Edwards2022; Fuentes Reference Fuentes2013). These researchers find that caregiving responsibilities and protective roles can serve as sources of political motivation, particularly in marginalized communities (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011).

Hypotheses

While Black mothers encounter several state agencies throughout their daily activities, I focus on the police due to the envisioned role they play in communities and their actual activities in Black neighborhoods, which are often contradictory. Police are often a first point of contact in situations where one’s safety is at risk as they are seen as a local resource of protection. Black mothers’ unique roles within Black families and communities put them in constant contact with the police as both victims and advocates of loved ones who encounter police. I argue that exposure to police contact will have a significant impact on Black mothers’ community-based political activity as they develop strategies to request improvements to systems and structures that govern their lives. I contend that the type of contact matters, as some of the literature suggests that direct exposure to negative police contact may demobilize individuals and indirect negative contact may have a galvanizing effect (Lee, Porter, and Comfort, Reference Lee, Porter and Comfort2014; Walker, Reference Walker2020a; Justice and Meares, Reference Justice and Meares2014; Turner and Shum, Reference Turner and Shum2025; Prowse, Weaver, and Meares, Reference Prowse, Weaver and Meares2020; Burch, Reference Burch2022; White, Reference White2019).

This paper focuses on community-based political activity as opposed to electoral forms of engagement because of the importance of community in Black mothers’ mobilization movements (Haywoode, Reference Haywoode1991; Orleck, 2016). While the scholarship informs us that individuals who experience direct police contact are less likely to engage in electoral political activity like voting (Weaver and Lerman, Reference Weaver and Lerman2010; Ben-Menachem and Morris, 2022), I argue that Black maternal status is tied to their sense of duty to protect their children from harm they have encountered (Collins, Reference Collins2000). There is a significant proportion of Black mothers who live in or near low-income communities, overexposing them to police violence (Roberts, Reference Roberts2011). Having frequent negative direct contact with police shapes their perceptions of police and provides them with the experiential knowledge to navigate governmental institutions (Meares, Reference Meares2016; Miller and Stuart, Reference Miller and Stuart2017; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011; Cohen, 2010). Black mothers may also possess a high sense of connectedness to their race and gender, which strengthens their beliefs of being able to effect change in their communities (Simien and Clawson, Reference Simien and Clawson2004; Simien, Reference Simien2005). With this understanding in mind, I argue that measuring Black women caregivers aside from Black women who do not will yield differing results. To test this theory, I posit:

These hypotheses also align with the current literature that argues indirect police contact has significant psychological and behavioral effects on Black mothers (Walker Reference Walker2020a; Walker Reference Walker2020b; Cohen 2010; Miller and Stuart Reference Miller and Stuart2017). While there may be instances when Black mothers are not personally subjected to negative police contact, Black mothers who witness or are closely connected to those harmed by law enforcement often internalize these encounters as threats to their own safety and dignity (Malone Gonzalez and Deckard, Reference Malone Gonzalez and Deckard2024). Their vicarious contact with police ignites collective trauma that can shape political attitudes, increase distrust in the state, and alter pathways to political engagement (Cohen, 2010; Miller & Stuart, Reference Miller and Stuart2017; Roberts, Reference Roberts2011; Walker, Reference Walker2020a; Walker, Reference Walker2020b; Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014). Carceral exposure in urban communities acts as a politicizing force, pushing individuals toward alternative forms of participation such as protest, community organizing, and mutual aid, and advocating in schools or neighborhoods (Michener, Reference Michener2013; Cohen, 2010; Miller & Stuart, Reference Miller and Stuart2017).

Black maternal status may offer a utility heuristic for Black mothers to engage in “good” mothering practices via their political activity through acts of resistance grounded in care, kinship, and collective survival. (Dawson, Reference Dawson2001; Cohen, 2010; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011; Fuentes, Reference Fuentes2013; Edwards, Reference Edwards2022). While I posit both direct and indirect police contact will have a significant effect on community political activity, I argue that indirect police contact will have an even stronger effect on community-based political activity as “intensive motherwork” plays a role in the complexity of Black mothers political choices (Roberts, Reference Roberts1993; Elliot, Powell, and Brenton, Reference Elliot, Powell and Brenton2015; Brantley, Reference Brantley2025). Indirect encounters with police offer Black mothers an opportunity to partake in both “good mothering” and “good citizenry” as they advocate for both their children and themselves through their non-electoral political activity (Fuentes, Reference Fuentes2013; Edwards, Reference Edwards2022). Experiencing both direct and indirect police contact emboldens Black mothers as they have a clearer understanding of who is in the in-group and who is against them. From the perspective of carceral citizenship (Miller & Stuart, Reference Miller and Stuart2017), these encounters represent more than punitive experiences; they are formative, shaping political knowledge, trust, and action. Black mothers, who are often forced to navigate the state’s punitive arms while caring for families, become politicized through repeated interactions with institutions that simultaneously surveil and neglect their communities.

Data and Methodology

Understanding how police contact affects Black mothers’ community-based political activity requires data with a significant number of Black women. To test the hypotheses, I focus on data from the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Elections Survey (CMPS). The CMPS is ideal for this research because it includes an oversampling of Black women (n = 2,739). The sample includes (n = 873) Black women who identify as caregivers of children and (n = 1885) Black women who do not care for children at least one day out of the week. The CMPS is also one of the only survey instruments to include comprehensive questions around both personal and familial encounters with police and political activity. The CMPS has been used in similar studies around issues of police violence and political activity for minority groups (Thomas et al., 2023; Mejia, 2024). The survey data are weighted using the 2019 American Community Survey and uses a national database of registered voters matched by email addresses, and a second from online panel vendors whose panelists are pre-matched to a national voter registration file for a nationally representative sample (Barreto et al., Reference Barreto, Frasure-Yokley, Vargas and Wong2018).

While the 2020 CMPS is ideal for this study, there are some limitations, including having survey items that offer a comprehensive measurement of maternal status and community-based political activity. There are no direct questions asked about respondents identifying as parents. To combat this limitation, I constructed a measure of maternal status from two of the drop-down options from 0 to 7, asking how many days during the week a respondent took children to school and activities, and acted as the main caretaker for children, elders, or others in their home. I measure maternal status as any respondent who does both duties for a duration of one day or more throughout the week. The two survey items were combined to generate a binary variable where (0) indicates a respondent does not perform both activities at least one day a week and (1) indicates respondents perform both activities at least one day a week. I use a binary to measure maternal status for easier interpretation of the regression models. This could include women who do not necessarily identify as mothers but are still acting as “othermothers” taking on major responsibilities of children (Collins Reference Collins2000). This measurement also does not allow me to include women who have adult children or children who do not live in the household with them; however, it does give me a reliable measurement for Black women caregivers whose daily activities involve children.

I was also limited in the survey items available to measure community-based political activity. While the survey items I used may not capture the extensive number of ways citizens can engage in non-electoral political activity or even how they may engage in local politics, they do capture a range of community-related political activity. I included several questions that operationalize community politics, including attendance in town hall meetings and working with community members to solve problems.

Before exploring the effects of police contact and maternal status on community-based political behavior, I establish that the two groups under analysis—Black mothers and Black non-mothers—are relatively similar across key demographic and political characteristics (see Table 1). Both groups are majority Democratic (with roughly equal splits between “weak” and “strong” Democrat as political party affiliation), predominantly unmarried, and distributed similarly in terms of age, income, and education. These parallels suggest that differences in political behavior are not driven by socioeconomic status or formal political identity alone but may instead stem from structural differences in lived experience, particularly caregiving activities and exposure to state institutions like the police.

Table 1. Characteristics of Respondents

Notes: Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Data Sourced from the 2020 Collaborative Multi-racial Post Elections Survey.

Independent Variables

The primary independent variables of interest are direct and indirect police contact, as I contend that type of police contact matters for how Black mothers are educated about the state. I constructed a direct police contact scale using questions about personal encounters with law enforcement, which ask respondents to indicate if they have (1) been stopped and questioned by the police, (2) been arrested, booked, or charged with a crime, and (3) spent time in jail or prison, including juvenile detention. For indirect police contact, the scale included survey instruments that asked respondents to indicate if they (1) had a close friend or family member arrested, booked, or charged with a crime, (2) had a close friend or family member who spent time in jail, prison, or on probation or parole, and (3) do you personally know anyone who has been shot by police or law enforcement? Respondents who indicated having any experience with these were coded as (1) and (0) if not. All the measurements for both direct and indirect police contact are highly correlated. Similar studies have relied on these indicators to measure criminal justice contact, including encounters with police (Walker 2020; Streeter 2023).

Dependent Variables

Community-based political activity is measured using eight survey items (1) working with others to solve community issues, (2) attend meetings to discuss community issues, (3) signed a petition, (4) boycotted a company, (5) joined an organization, (6) attend a protest, (7) turned to community organizations instead of law enforcement, and (8) contacted an elected official. These indicators are consistent with similar studies that measure local or community politics (Michener Reference Michener2013; Lerman and Weaver Reference Lerman and Weaver2014). Individuals who reported that they had engaged in each form of participation were coded (1), and those who did not were coded (0). I used dichotomous variables to measure community-based political activities since many of the indicators for those questions were yes, I think so, or some variation of no responses. In this case, a definitive yes is the only indicator that would validly measure participation. Cronbach’s alpha for the dependent variables is 0.89, indicating internal consistency. Each model tests the modes of non-electoral political participation, offering a comparison of the findings for both Black mothers and non-mothers.

Table 2 reveals that Black mothers in the sample report experiencing both direct and indirect experiences with law enforcement more frequently than Black women who are not mothers. More than half of Black mothers (53%) report being stopped by police, compared to 45% of non-mothers. Arrest (24% vs. 13%) and incarceration (16% vs. 9%) are also more common among mothers. Indirect exposure through kin networks is similarly higher, particularly notable is that 23% of Black mothers report a family member having been shot by police, compared to just 15% of non-mothers. These descriptives align with scholarship on the consequences of living in a gendered racial state, which shows how Black women who care for others are more vulnerable to overlapping forms of surveillance and punishment from law enforcement and other state agencies (Roberts, Reference Roberts2011; Richie, Reference Richie2012; McClain, Reference McClain2019; Elliot and Reid, 2019). Rather than existing outside of political life, these experiences often situate Black mothers at the center of state power as targets, not beneficiaries.

Table 2. Direct and Indirect Police Encounters

Notes: Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Data Sourced from the 2020 Collaborative Multi-racial Post Elections Survey.

Previous research has found individual-level factors, including income, age, educational attainment levels, marital status, partisanship strength, and religiosity, influence political behaviors (Verba et.al., Reference Verba, Schlozman and Brady1995; Dawson and Cohen, 2013; Michener, Reference Michener2013). By holding constant many sociodemographic variables, the analysis sharpens the focus on how maternal status and police contact shape political trajectories in meaningful ways. For this reason, I include each of these indicators as controls in each of the models. Age (0 = 18–39, 1 = 40–59, 2 = 60+), religiosity (0 = Not important, 1 = very important and somewhat important), marital status (0 = not married, 1 = married), income (0 = 39,000 or less, 1 = $40,000+), education (0 = high school diploma or less, 1 = some college, 2 = college degree or more), partisanship (0 = weak democrat, 1 = strong democrat). Table 1 shows the characteristics of the respondents and the cutoffs of these measures.

Findings

At the beginning of this research, I expected to find that Black mothers who experience direct and indirect police contact are more likely to engage in community-based political activity. The findings in Tables 3 and 4 affirm that maternal status and police contact are significant factors in Black women’s community-oriented actions. Contrary to theories that suggest political withdrawal as a response to systemic surveillance and trauma, the evidence presented here shows that such contact, particularly when combined with maternal identity, can catalyze localized and community-driven political engagement (Wolfinger and Rosenstone, 1980; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, Reference Verba, Schlozman and Brady1995). Results from the multivariate regression analysis (Table 3) yield positive and statistically significant results. The model offers evidence that demonstrates police contact can be politically mobilizing under certain conditions.

Table 3. Effects of Direct Police Contact on Community-Based Political Activity

Source: 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS).

Table 4. Effects of Indirect Police Contact on Community-Based Political Activity

Source: 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS).

Direct police contact is significantly associated with increased community-based political activity (β = 0.177, p < 0.01), suggesting that personal experiences with state violence may provoke localized forms of political response, including participating in protests and connecting with other community members to address issues. Moreover, maternal status itself is positively associated with community-based political activity (β = 0.093, p < 0.01), and the interaction between maternal status and direct police contact is also statistically significant (β = 0.044, p < 0.05). I interpret this to mean Black mothers who experience police contact are even more likely to engage in community action than non-mothers with similar experiences. These findings reveal that direct police contact can be a significant influence on Black women’s local political engagement, especially mothers. While much political science literature focuses on the effects of contact for Black men or marginalized communities overall, this analysis suggests that negative personal encounters with law enforcement can serve as a catalyst for political action within communities.

Table 4 presents the results of a multivariate regression model assessing the relationship between indirect police contact, such as having a family member arrested, convicted, or harmed by police, and community-based political activity among Black women. The results indicate a statistically significant and positive association between indirect exposure to police violence and local political engagement. The coefficient for indirect police contact is positive and statistically significant (β = 0.088, p < 0.01), suggesting that even secondhand experiences with the carceral state can mobilize Black women toward community-oriented political participation. This finding aligns with existing research that views political engagement as shaped not just by individual grievance but also by collective and familial experiences with systemic harm (Lerman and Weaver, Reference Lerman and Weaver2014; Cohen, 2010; Miller & Stuart, Reference Miller and Stuart2017; Lawson, Reference Lawson2018; Walker, Reference Walker2020a).

Maternal status also independently predicts community-based political activity (β = 0.068, p < 0.01), indicating that Black mothers are more likely to engage in local political work than non-mothers. This supports the theoretical assertions and hypotheses that Black mothers are more likely to engage in local politics as maternal status acts as a mobilizing mechanism (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011; McClain, Reference McClain2019). The interaction term between indirect police contact and maternal status is also significant and positive (β = 0.062, p < 0.01), indicating that Black mothers who report indirect contact with the police are even more likely to participate in community-based political activity than their non-mother counterparts. This effect highlights how proximity to state violence, when layered with caregiving responsibility, can catalyze a specific form of political agency rooted in care, resistance, and survival. The model explains about 9% of the variance in community-based political activity (Adjusted R² = 0.088) and the F-statistic confirms the model is statistically significant overall (F(9, 2729) = 30.417, p < 0.01).

These results reveal that indirect police contact, particularly when experienced through family networks, can be a significant driver of political engagement among Black women, especially mothers. While much political science literature focuses on the demobilizing effects of state violence, this analysis suggests that indirect trauma can serve as a catalyst for political action within communities (Weaver and Lerman, Reference Weaver and Lerman2010). It also underscores the political importance of kinship and caregiving roles, particularly in contexts of structural vulnerability (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Collins, Reference Collins2004; Edwards, Reference Edwards2022). For Black mothers, indirect exposure to police violence does not lead to withdrawal from civic life but rather fuels engagement through community-centered political work. This finding also supports work on the effects of political socialization under marginalization (Cohen, 2010; Michener, Reference Michener2013), which argues that marginalized individuals may become politically active not through traditional channels like parties or campaigns, but through personal encounters with injustice and collective survival strategies.

Several control variables are also statistically significant in both tables. Age is negatively associated with community-based political activity (β = −0.051, p < 0.01) for direct contact and (β = −0.058, p < 0.01) for indirect contact, suggesting that younger respondents are more likely to be politically active in their communities. Religiosity is positively associated with the variables (β = 0.104, p < 0.01) for direct and (β = 0.103, p < 0.01) for indirect, demonstrating that those who find religion more important are more likely to engage with their community. Marital status (β = 0.028, p < 0.01) for direct and (β = 0.028, p < 0.01) for indirect, educational attainment (β = 0.037, p < 0.01) for direct and (β = 0.043, p < 0.01) for indirect, and partisanship (β = 0.121, p < 0.01) for direct and (β = 0.098, p < 0.01) for indirect are all positively associated with community engagement. Income is an insignificant predictor of community-based political activity for both types of contacts.

The results challenge dominant paradigms in political science that equate political participation with institutional trust, electoral engagement, or socioeconomic stability. The coefficients for religion affirm the literature stating the importance of community organizations like the Black church to Black women’s political engagement (Higginbotham, Reference Higginbotham1992; Farris and Holman, Reference Farris and Holman2014). This analysis affirms what Black feminist scholars have long argued that political behavior among marginalized communities is often misrecognized or undercounted because it does not conform to elite-defined norms (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Harris-Perry, Reference Harris-Perry2011; Cohen, 2010). For Black mothers, community-based political work may be an extension of care work, motivated by the imperative to protect one’s family and neighborhood from violence (Collins, Reference Collins2000; Fuentes, Reference Fuentes2013; Roberts, Reference Roberts2011; Richie, Reference Richie2012; Jordan-Zachery, Reference Jordan-Zachery2017).