Usability of the Beliefs about Law Enforcement Scale: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Students’ Voices

Background/Purpose: Police excessive use of force in minoritized communities is an enduring social justice and public health crisis, with decades of research showing divergent views between white and Black respondents. The 15-item, Beliefs about Law Enforcement (BALE) scale was recently developed to assess perceptions of police use of violence; however, the tool has been validated with MSW student samples, only, from whom quantitative data were collected during the validation process. There is no research describing students’ impressions or reflections either about the BALE scale as a unifying construct, or the individual items comprising the BALE scale. This paper addresses this gap by adding student participants’ voices about the interpretation, clarity, sensitivity, and usability of the BALE scale.

Methods: Thirty-two MSW students enrolled in an online HBSE course responded to the following, open-ended question posed by the Instructor on the Moodle site, “What are your impressions of the Beliefs About Law Enforcement study and survey?" Consent was obtained and all data were deidentified prior to analysis. The sample was predominantly white (65.62%) and female (81.82%).

Using comments posted by students, we conducted a directed, qualitative content analysis where text responses were linked to predefined scale items. Qualitative data were analyzed in three distinct phases using the rigorous and accelerated data reduction (RADaR) technique, which is an iterative, matrix-based approach to condense qualitative data. After entering all participant responses into a structured data matrix, we first used an open coding technique to identify salient concepts from the data while keeping it intentionally descriptive and granular. Second, extracted thematic codes were refined and collapsed into high-order categories and groups that represented recurring patterns across the codes anchoring dominant categories. These categories were then synthesized into five overarching themes that encapsulated students’ engagement with the BALE scale through iterative comparison, pattern recognition, and attention to both frequency and conceptual significance.

Results: Five interrelated themes captured how MSW students engaged with the BALE scale and interpreted issues of policing, race, and bias: (1) BALE as a tool for self-reflection and bias recognition; (2) emotional engagement with BALE as a critical learning mechanism; (3) engagement with structural inequality and policing, recognizing systemic injustice; (4) translating reflection into professional responsibility and social work practice; and (5) critical appraisal and interpretation of BALE.

Implications/Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of inviting student comments as part of the scale validation process, not only for their benefit, but also for those developing a specific instrument. In our qualitative inquiry, students endorsed the BALE scale as an educational tool that prompted them to reflect on their own personal biases, as well as to engage on an emotional level, sharing their lived experiences with systemic inequality and perceptions of policing, in particular; and disclosing their belief systems about the role and responsibilities of practicing social workers. Lastly, students’ deep reflections helped us clarify, retool, and eliminate some problematic BALE scale items, thereby enhancing the coherence, interpretability, and usability of the overall scale. In this respect, students were welcome partners in the revalidation process.