I. Awareness of Protests and Riots in Baltimore Americans’ awareness of recent events in Baltimore is high, with more than two-thirds (68%) saying they have heard a lot about the protest demonstrations and riots in Baltimore. Roughly one-quarter (24%) say they have heard a little, while only six percent report having heard nothing at all. Familiarity with these events varies considerably by race and ethnicity. Close to nine in ten (87%) black Americans say they have had heard a lot about the protests in Baltimore, compared to 69% of white Americans and 52% of Hispanic Americans.

II. Do Black Americans Receive Fair Treatment by the Criminal Justice System? Approximately four in ten (41%) Americans overall agree that blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment as whites in the criminal justice system, compared to a slim majority (51%) who disagree. Perceptions of the fairness of the criminal justice system are heavily influenced by race, with nearly a 30-percentage point gap between black and white Americans. Only 17% of black Americans agree that blacks and other minorities receive equal treatment to whites in the criminal justice system, compared to 78% who disagree. White Americans (46% agree vs. 47% disagree) and Hispanics Americans (39% agree vs. 48% disagree) are more divided on this issue. White evangelical Protestants stand out as the religious group most likely to say the criminal justice system treats racial minorities and whites equally (57% agree, 37% disagree). Current differences between white and black Americans in views about fairness of the criminal justice system reflect long-standing racial divisions. In 1992, the same year of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, white Americans were almost evenly divided over whether blacks and whites receive equal treatment in the criminal justice (46% agreed vs. 43% disagreed). That same year, fewer than one in ten (8%) black Americans said that blacks are treated the same as whites in the criminal justice system, while 89% disagreed. Partisan differences on racial equality within the criminal justice system rival racial and ethnic differences. Roughly two-thirds (66%) of Republicans say that blacks and whites are treated equally in the criminal justice system, while majorities of Democrats (66%) and independents (53%) disagree.

III. Treatment of Black Americans by Police Response patterns are similar on the question of police treatment of racial minorities. Roughly four in ten (41%) Americans say that police officers generally treat blacks and other minorities the same as whites, compared to a majority (52%) who disagree. Attitudes have remained relatively stable since late last year. In November 2014, Americans were divided over whether police officers generally treat blacks the same as whites or not—45% agree vs. 52% disagree. Views about treatment of black Americans by police are polarized by race and ethnicity. Eighty-four percent of black Americans and 60% of Hispanic Americans do not believe that police officers treat blacks and other minorities the same as whites. By contrast, 47% of white Americans say police officers treat ethnic minorities fairly, while a similar number (45%) disagree. Attitudes about police treatment of blacks are also strongly influenced by partisan attachments. About two-thirds (63%) of Republicans say that police officers generally treat blacks and other minorities the same as whites, while more than two-thirds (68%) of Democrats disagree. Political independents are more divided; 41% agree that police treat ethnic minorities and whites equally, while 49% disagree. Americans of different religious backgrounds express substantially different views about police officers’ treatment of black Americans. More than six in ten (62%) white evangelical Protestants say that police officers treat blacks the same as whites, while fewer than half of white mainline Protestants (47%) and white Catholics (47%) agree. In contrast, 62% of religiously unaffiliated Americans and 75% of minority Protestants do not say police treat white and non-white Americans equally.