Analysis of attitudes toward the use of force by police finds that, in 1991, 70 percent of whites and 43 percent of blacks approved of a policeman striking an adult male citizen under some circumstances. Groups with greater power, status and advantages (whites, males, the more educated, the wealthier) were more likely to favor police use of force than were less privileged groups. Other factors found to have significant relationships with support for police violence included: beliefs about personality characteristics of minorities and poor people, religious conservatism, having been the victim of violence, gun ownership, views on appropriate child rearing goals or values, and feelings about courts' treatment and sentencing of criminals. The article includes a review of relevant literature, a brief look at theories and hypotheses, and an examination of the role of police in the maintenance of status inequality. Figures, tables, appendix, references