NCJ Number
69664
Journal
Journal of Police Science and Administration Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1980) Pages: 220-224
Date Published
1980
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This study compares attitudes between and among male and female suburban high school students regarding the police.
Abstract
The subjects included 126 male and 111 female students from 14 high schools located in a suburb of a major city. The data were collected as part of a larger survey on attitudes toward the whole justice system. The Semantic Differential technique was used to survey the attitudes, with ratings on police value, potency, activity, and understandability. When the data for males and females were pooled together and analyzed, the picture that emerged was the same as that for males by themselves. Thus, while the females saw the police as being more active than did the males, both sexes agreed that the prominent attribute of police is that they were, at least relatively speaking, difficult to understand. Significantly, all subjects rated the police highest in value and potency, a surprising view given the 'pig' image of the sixties. Overall, relatively positive views of the police were held, except that the police were poorly understood. Research might thus be conducted regarding females' higher rating for police on the activity scale and what specific characteristics of the police are ill understood. Moreover, this study would suggest that local efforts might be directed toward improving police-youth communication, with education for each about the other. Footnotes and tables are provided.