Criminal Justice

Among the challenges U.S. police officers perceive on the job is a widespread feeling that police are mistreated by the media.

The public and the police differ on issues ranging from an assault rifle ban to racial progress in the U.S., but their views align on other issues.

Obama granted clemency to more people than any U.S. president in 64 years, but he also received far more requests than any president on record.

Female police officers sometimes differ sharply from male officers in their views of policing and their experiences.

Republicans and Democrats have vastly different opinions about how well police do their jobs and the realities of policing today.

On some subjects, racial differences among the police are considerably more pronounced than they are among the public as a whole.

A new Pew Research Center nationwide survey of 7,917 police officers focuses on a wide range of topics about policing, including how police view their jobs, officers’ experiences in the field and how these fatal encounters have impacted the way they do their jobs.

Read an interview with Senior Editor Rich Morin and Senior Research Methodologist Andrew Mercer, who were involved in our groundbreaking police officer survey.

Majorities of police officers say that recent high-profile encounters between black citizens and police have made their jobs riskier and left many officers reluctant to fully carry out some of their duties.

Tell us how you think police would answer each of five questions in a Pew Research Center nationwide survey of 7,917 police officer then we’ll tell you how officers actually answered each question i