How Perceptions of Power Affect the Ability to Resolve Police-Community Conflict Based on the Relational Theory of Power

How Perceptions of Power Affect the Ability to Resolve Police-Community Conflict Based on the Relational Theory of Power

The relational theory of power posits that the influence a person has over another individual is equal to the individual’s reliance on them and vice versa. According to this idea, if the community thinks the police are more powerful than them or the police think the community is more powerful than them, it may have an impact on the ability to resolve police-community conflict. For instance, the conflict caused by police brutality in the community, especially among minority groups, may be hard to resolve when the minority groups perceive that the police have control over them and may accuse them of any crime to get them arrested because they have a reputation of committing crimes such as armed robbery, gang membership and illegal immigration. The community may also have more power over the police when they unite and protest against a police officer or the police department, which could intensify the conflict between them and the police, making it hard to settle on common ground.