NCJ Number
179054
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 27 Issue: 5 Dated: 1999 Pages: 457-465
Editor(s)
Kent B. Joscelyn
Date Published
1999
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study examined evaluations of police performance among a sample of African-Americans.
Abstract
Data were collected as part of a telephone survey of the African-American community of Charlotte, N.C., conducted in June and early July 1996 for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Urban League. The survey focused on a variety of economic, political, and social issues of concern to the African-American community. Survey interviews included a Likert-format item that stated, "Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are doing a good job." This question provided a measure of the dependent variable. Independent variables encompassed respondent demographic variables; crime, neighborhood, and police variables; and several additional variables, including gender, family income, home-ownership, and respondents' employment status. Regression analysis shows that age, education, victimization, respondents' evaluations of the safety of their neighborhoods, their evaluations of their neighborhoods, and their evaluations of police response time getting to their neighborhoods all had significant effects upon evaluations of local police performance. These results are consistent with studies that have emphasized the neighborhood context of evaluations of local police performance. They also indicate that evaluations of police response time are a significant factor in evaluations of overall police performance among African-Americans. 2 tables and 28 references