NCJ Number
85627
Journal
Pacific Sociological Review Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1981) Pages: 45-64
Date Published
1981
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Policemen and policewomen are the most visible and obtrusive agents of governmental authority and power to the average citizen. This being the case, what the public think about police and their work is highly important - and may well serve as a significant social indicator of the political health of the society as a whole.
Abstract
Using telephone survey data gathered in the St. Louis SMSA during the Summer of 1977 as part of a major study of police services, a number of hypotheses regarding the influence of political alienation, perceived local crime, perceived police integrity, race, and social class upon public evaluation of local police performance were tested. Public ratings of police were generally quite high. However, those lacking trust in police integrity, who viewed crime as increasing, who expressed estrangement from the political process, as well as those who were nonwhite or lower class were more likely to rate police performance negatively than others. In addition, a number of noteworthy conditional effects were uncovered utilizing the nonmetric least-squares estimation procedure developed by Grizzle, Starmer, and Koch (1969). The generalizability of these conditional effects needs to be examined in future research without this area. (Author abstract)