NCJ Number
73428
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: (1980) Pages: 243-249
Date Published
1980
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study of the effects both of victimization and of police and judicial contacts on attitudes towards the police and judicial contacts on attitudes towards the police shows that police perceptions of widespread public hostility are unwarranted, even in the cases of traffic violators and those who have been arrested or convicted.
Abstract
The Canadian study is based on survey data collected in Bristish Columbia (Canada) and compared with data from other parts of Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand during the period between 1967 and 1978. The findings show that the attitude towards the police is generally favorable across all subpopulations but tends to be lower than average among younger people; religious, racial, or ethnic minorities; people who have had an adverse contact with the police or victimization during the preceding year; and especially among those who have experienced or observed what they perceive to be improper police field practices. Thus police perceptions of widespread hostility appear unwarranted, even in the case of traffic violators and of those who have been arrested or convicted. Some questions, however, still need to be answered; e.g., whether the relationship of age with local police evaluation is caused by learned police responses to youth, or by learned responses of youth to the police and if perceived police rudeness and unfairness lead to less favorable public evaluations of local police lead to perception (or selective recall) of neutral behaviors as incidents of rudeness or unfairness. Statistical and tabular data, notes and 26 references are included.