Contesting repression in divided democracies: Can counternarratives reduce support for police violence?

Democracies often struggle to contain police violence, which undermines the rule of law and reproduces inequality by targeting marginalized citizens. Yet, scholars have shown that repressive policing enjoys considerable public support. Focusing on Brazil, we demonstrate that attitudes toward police violence mirror polarization between left- and right-wing voters, and investigate how competing narratives change attitudes toward police violence through multiple mechanisms. We argue that marginalized victims’ counternarratives can counteract police discourses justifying violence through perspective-getting, enabling citizens to hear about the experiences of stigmatized groups. Using a nationwide survey experiment, we find that although police narratives increase endorsement of lethal violence, statements from victims’ mothers emphasizing innocence and disadvantage reduce support for police killings—even among right-wing voters—by increasing empathy and reducing victim-blaming. We demonstrate that, even in deeply unequal and polarized democracies where exclusionary attitudes align with entrenched ideological divides, counternarratives from marginalized groups can shape public attitudes toward injustices.