The impact of race/ethnicity, neighborhood context, and police/citizen interaction on residents' attitudes toward the police

The purpose of this study was to extend the current knowledge of public attitudes toward the police. Independent variables derived from three models, the demographic, the neighborhood context, and the police/citizen interaction models, were used to explain public perceptions of the police. More specifically, public attitudes toward the police was measured in two dimensions— General Attitudes toward the police and Specific Trust in the police. The data was obtained by a telephone survey of 756 respondents in Houston, TX in 2008. The primary findings suggested that race, gender, age, victimization, and satisfaction with police work were significant predictors. Hispanic respondents reported lower levels of General Attitudes toward the police than their White counterparts. In addition, there was no significant difference between Whites and Hispanics in terms of Specific Trust in police such as the use of Taser guns. These results and their practical implications for police agencies were addressed in discussion.     

Reassessing the impact of race on citizens' attitudes toward the police: A research note

This paper reassesses the relationship between race and attitudes toward the police. Using data obtained through a telephone interview survey of 560 residents of Detroit, the study contradicts previous research by finding that blacks hold more favorable attitudes toward the police than do whites. To explain these findings, we argue that as the social context of cities changes, so might the relationship between race and citizens' attitudes toward the police.     

Korean police officers' attitude toward the efficacy of mini-police stations

In the era of community policing, a mini-police station system gained popularity and was adopted in many countries in order to improve relationships with citizens and decentralize the police. The very similar system in South Korea, which existed as the core division since the establishment of the modern Korean Police, however, stimulated controversy over the effectiveness of preventing crime and improving the relationship between citizens and the police. Unfortunately, an empirical study was not conducted to examine the effectiveness of the mini-police station system in South Korea, despite the significance of the issue. As a first step, the current study examined Korean police officers' perception of the efficacy of police mini-stations. Results showed that a majority of Korean officers believed that mini-police stations played crucial and positive roles. Regarding determinants of the perceived efficacy of a mini-police station, individual and organizational factors (except rank and unit assigned) were not significantly related to officers' attitude toward the efficacy of a mini-police station. Instead, attitudinal factors were found to be significant predictors of the perceived efficacy of a mini-police station. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Citizens’ perceptions of the courts: The impact of race, gender, and recent experience

This study examined the influences of race, gender, and recent court experience on citizens’ perceptions of the courts in their communities. Using national survey data collected in 2000, this research assessed variation in perceptions of the courts along four dimensions: differential treatment, fair procedure and outcome, concern and respect, and overall evaluation. The results showed that racial minorities, including Blacks and Latinos, were more likely than Whites to have negative attitudes toward the courts. While race is generally a better predictor than gender, the interaction between gender and race is important in understanding citizen’s perceptions of the courts. Citizens who have recent personal contact with the courts tend to rate the courts less favorable than those who have no recent contact. Citizens’ opinions of the police and equal opportunity are also significantly related to their perceptions of the courts. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Demeanor,sex, and race in police processing

Recent increases in arrests of women have stimulated much controversy about the causes and extent of female crime and created much speculation about the differential treatment of female offenders by police officers. This article reports an empirical study of police processing of female offenders. During September–December 1978, 282 questionnaires were completed by police officers and detectives in a large, metropolitan area in a southeastern state. Each officer was asked to indicate a police decision in five hypothetical situations which varied by types of offense, race of the offender, sex of the offender, and demeanor of the offender. An analysis of the responses of the police officers indicates that decisions of police are not contingent on the sex and race of the offenders. The major variables in determining how police officers will respond are the nature of the offense and the manner in which the offender behaves when confronted by the officer.     

Driving across campus: Assessing the impact of drivers' race and gender on police traffic enforcement actions

This study examined the effect of drivers' race and gender on officers' decision to search a driver/vehicle and invoke a legal sanction, controlling for legal and extralegal factors. Logistic regression analyses of 10,210 traffic stops on a university campus indicated that drivers' race and gender had a significant effect on officers' decision to search a driver/vehicle and invoke a legal sanction. Black male drivers were more likely than White drivers to be searched, but were less likely to receive a legal sanction. Unexpectedly, the results showed that Asian drivers were less likely to be searched, but more likely to receive legal sanctions than White drivers. Findings, however, indicated that legal and extralegal factors (i.e., types of traffic violation, time, officer type) were found to have significant effects on officers' decisions during traffic stops.     

The relationship between education, experience, and police performance

This study used data from 299 police officers from 12 municipal police departments across the state of Virginia to determine the relationship between education and police performance. Performance was measured by supervisor evaluations of each officer's overall performance, communication skills, public relations skills, report writing skills, response to new training, decision making ability, and commitment to the police department. Significant correlations were found between education and most measures of performance. Most importantly, the results show a significant correlation between overall performance and education (r=24, p.<001). The only variables not proving to be significantly related to education were objective measures of the volume of arrests, number of times the officer required discipline, and number of accidents. Interestingly, the benefits of a college education do not become apparent until police officers gain experience. In addition, police, officers with only a high school diploma decreased in overall performance after five years of experience.     

The effects of criminal victimization and judicial or police contacts on public attitudes toward local police

The effects both of victimization and of police or judicial contacts on attitudes toward the police are studied by means of survey data collected in British Columbia (Canada). Such attitudes toward the police are generally favorable across all subpopulations but tend to be lower than average among: people who have experienced a household criminal victimization during the preceding year, those who have experienced an adverse contact with the police, and especially among those who have experienced or observed what they perceive to be improper police field practices. Police perceptions of widespread hostility appear unwarranted, even in the case of traffic violators and of those who have been arrested or convicted. Such findings are compared with data from other parts of Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.     

The importance of police contact in the formulation of youths' attitudes toward police

The central focus of this study was to examine types of contact between adolescents and police as determinants of attitudes toward these authority figures. Three value or group expressive determinants — race, deviance, and parental defiance — were used as control variables to specify conditions under which the importance of actual contact with police is enhanced or diminished. Positive contact with police was found to be predictive of positive attitudes and negative contact was predictive of negative attitudes toward police. Further investigation revealed that the relationship between positive contact and positive attitudes toward police became significantly stronger among youths who had experienced negative encounters with police, as well as among those who reported being frequently involved in deviance, and among those who had been defiant of parental authority. The effects of negative contact with police were most significant among whites, those who report infrequent deviant behavior, and those youths who had experienced little or no positive contact with police.     

The impact of police reform on communities of Trinidad and Tobago

Objectives  

Reforms were implemented at five selected police stations in Trinidad and Tobago. The reforms were designed to improve the services delivered by police stations, to reduce crime, and to increase public confidence in the police. The intervention involved improving police facilities, vehicles, and equipment, and enhancing station staffing, training, and technical assistance to improve basic police work and station management/supervision. It introduced service-oriented, problem-solving approaches to replace the traditional colonial and post-colonial models of policing.     

Frisky business: race,gender and police activity during traffic stops

European Journal of Law and Economics - Since the United States Supreme Court laid the foundation for “stop-and-frisk” activity by police departments, a substantial amount of research...     

The impact of race on perceptions of criminal injustice

Based on a stratified sample of 239 residents of Cincinnati, Ohio, the present study explored whether African Americans and Whites differ in their perceptions of racial injustice in the criminal justice system. The data revealed a cleavage in the extent to which the races believed that Black citizens would be differentially stopped by the police, given a speeding ticket, jailed, and sentenced to death. The effect of race remained strong even when controls were introduced for sociodemographic characteristics, experience with the criminal justice system, experience with crime, neighborhood disorder, and political and crime related ideology. Perceptions of injustice, moreover, were strongest among the least affluent African Americans. The possibility that the racial divide in perceived criminal injustice both reflects and contributes to a larger racial chasm in how Black and White citizens understand and experience their lives in American society is explored.     

公共安全问题界定、影响发展趋势和应对策略

近年来我国公共安全形势日益严峻,公共安全问题给我国经济、政府公信力、社会公众乃至国际政治带来了诸多消极影响。在可以预见的将来,我国的公共安全问题还有可能进一步恶化,具体将呈现出以下几个趋势:非传统安全因素引发的公共安全问题不断增多;群体性事件呈上升趋势;公共安全问题呈现跨国性的特征。公共安全问题已经成为政府和人民必须面对和解决的一个迫切问题。     

Politics and the police in Scotland: The impact of devolution

The creation of a Scottish Parliament and Scottish government in 1999, under the process of devolution within the UK, created a significantly different constitutional and political landscape from that which preceded it. The impact on domestic issues in Scotland, such as policing, has been considerable. This is partly because of new structural arrangements, including the creation of a Justice Minister and a Justice Committee of the Parliament, and partly because of the significance of the law and order agenda within Scottish politics. This paper discusses the impact of these developments on the Scottish police. Analysis focuses on the growing involvement of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish governments in key areas such as constabulary independence, police accountability and the management of police resources. Through this discussion, the paper seeks to make a contribution to the debate about the relationship between the police and politics, and the extent to which policing in Scotland is becoming increasingly politicised.     

Perspectives on the impact of lineup composition,race, and witness confidence on identification accuracy

This paper addresses a number of issues suggested by the Lindsay and Wells (1980) study on lineup composition and identification accuracy. The interaction between bias in instructions to the witness, presence or absence of the criminal from the lineup, and similarity between the suspect and the lineup foils are discussed. Although Lindsay and Wells suggest that witness confidence has little or no relationship to witness accuracy, it is pointed out that a recent field study found a substantial accuracy-confidence relationship when criminal-present photo lineups were used. There are not yet clearcut findings on the accuracy-confidence relationship in criminal-absent lineups, partially because of ambiguity in the definition of confidence in this situation. Although there is much research on the impact of the race of suspect and witness on identification accuracy, little attention has been paid to the race of the person who constructs the photo or corporeal lineup. Recent research results lead to the prediction of an interaction between all three of these factors on identification accuracy, with greatest accuracy when the lineup constructor and lineup members are of the same race and the witness is of a different race. Issues in the applicability of the results of Bayesian analyses to the judicial system are briefly discussed. Potential issues include the tendency to see researchers solely as advocates for the defense, and the tendency of people to disregard statistical summaries such as base rate data and research results when making individual decisions. An additional issue concerns Bayesian diagnosticity ratios (derived from rates of correct and false identifications) which can be logically and statistically equivalent to one another but differ considerably in their legal applications and value relevance.     

The impact of a verbal warning on police consent search practices

This article explores the impact of requiring a verbal warning prior to a police request for consent to search a suspect's automobile. The United States Supreme Court expressed concern that requiring a verbal warning prior to a consent request would make consent searches impossible for the police. Twenty-seven months of motor vehicle stop data (N = 800) was analyzed during periods where a verbal warning was and was not required prior to a consent request. The findings did not support the conclusion that a verbal warning would cause a substantial decrease in consent searches. A slight increase in the volume of consent requests was observed after the police were required to administer the warning.     

Race and police officers' perceptions of their job performance: An analysis of the relationship between police officers' race,education level,and job performance

This study examines whether police officers' race is associated with their performance of duties and delivery of services. Using self-report survey methodology, officers of three different races (African-American, White, and Hispanic) evaluated their performance on forty dimensions of their work. The results indicate that race is not a significant factor in officers' self-assessments. However, the results indicated that officers with some college education and college degree (irrespective of the race) report themselves performing better on several dimensions of their work than officers with no college education. Author's Note: Suman Kakar, Ph.D., is Associate Profess or at Florida International University, College of Health and Urban Affairs. University Park Campus, Miami, FL 33199.     

The impact of race on the adjudication of sexual assault and other violent crimes

This study assessed whether sexual assault offenders were differently adjudicated from other violent felons and to what extent any differences in adjudication decisions were explained by the defendant's race. Five court decisions were analyzed using a weighted sample of 41,151 cases adjudicated between 1990 and 1996 that were representative of cases in the seventy-five most populous United States counties. The results did not support the hypothesis that sexual assault cases were given, on average, more leniency than less serious violent offenses, however, various adjudication decisions for the four violent offenses were moderated by the defendant's race. Interaction models showed minorities were treated more punitively compared to Whites when they were charged with an assault, robbery, or murder, but they were treated more leniently when they were charged with a sexual assault. Explanatory models that accounted for the differential processing of minorities that were disproportionately lenient or punitive, depending on the crime, are discussed.