Beliefs About Law Enforcement Scale: A Revalidation Study

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2024

Abstract

Objective: The original 15-item Beliefs About Law Enforcement (O-BALE) scale was developed to measure social work students’ perceptions of police within the racialized context in which such perceptions manifest. The current study incorporated methodological improvements to strengthen the validity of the scale. Method: A total of 229 MSW students self-administered the O-BALE scale to report their perceptions about police violence against Black Americans. After eliminating the scale items vulnerable to social desirability bias, we performed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to measure the factor structure of the resultant 12-item scale and used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to determine whether the EFA model offered optimal data fit. Results: The EFA yielded a two-factor solution, and the initial CFA resulted in removal of the second factor. The final single-factor model with eight items improved the model fit for the data. The internal consistency reliability, test–retest reliability, and convergent validity for the revalidated BALE (R-BALE) scale were satisfactory. Conclusions: The R-BALE scale is a promising instrument for research in various settings and for promoting dialogue about institutional racism. Further validation testing is warranted with social work practitioners in different practice settings.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research

First Page

485

Last Page

512

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