NCJ Number
72256
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: (1980) Pages: 111-122
Date Published
1980
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Police social isolation and occupational solidarity are said to be the cause and also the result of poor police-community relations. A model was developed and applied to explore these factors; new ways of measuring police performance are recommended.
Abstract
The multivariate, multistage conceptual model was applied to a medium-sized midwestern police department. A representative sample of 61 officers took a voluntary paper and pencil self-administered questionnaire consisting of a set of attitudinal, actuarial, and demographic questions. Each of the five variables investigated was composed of a minimum of three dimensions (e.g., aggressive use of authority, individual profiles, and occupational solidarity). Each of the variables' dimensions was operationally defined by asking the subject to respond to a minimum of three Likert-type statements. The findings showed that mutual hostility, suspicion, and fear were created by aggressive enforcement techniques. The use of these techniques is said to result from a need to generate the arrest rates that define police performance. Up to now, efforts to improve police-community relations usually involve a symptom-treatment approach (e.g., creation of police-community relations units). It is suggested that a more effective approach would be to treat instead the cause of poor police-community relations -- the need of the police to rely on aggressive enforcement techniques. A suggested major reform would allow police performance to be measured not by number of arrests but by effectiveness in crime prevention and quality of services to citizens and to eliminate police enforcement which focuses on victimless crime. Statistical data and over 60 references are included.