Study of Certain Community Characteristics in Relation to Community Attitudes of the Police in the City of Muskegon, Michigan

• NCJ Number: 69792
• Author(s): M D Moore
• Date Published: 1970
• Length: 169 pages
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Michigan State University - Masters Thesis

Annotation

The relationships between selected community characteristics and community attitudes toward police were measured in Muskegon, Michigan.

Abstract

The study was part of an evaluation of an in-service human relations training program for the city's police department. Its goal was to increase the department's knowledge of such relationships to help police relate better to the community through informed decisionmaking. The sample included 388 citizens from 5 census tracts which were selected as representative of various income levels. The citizens were selected randomly within each tract. The self-administered questionnaire measured (1) the specific police style preferred by the public in a given situation; (2) the public's perception of the police role as more of a legalistic or of a community service nature; (3) the public's perception of the importance of various tasks for which the city police are responsible; and (4) the police image based on a prestige scale which incuded general prestige, degree of infuence, social position, and economic position. An information sheet collected data on each respondent's sex, age, marital status, race, family income, occupation, sociopolitical philosophy, education, and police contact. Chi-square analysis was used to measure significance. The results showed that although all community characteristics produced significant differences toward the particular police style preferred in a given situation, marital status, race, and sociopolitical philosophy were most related: married, white, and conservative respondents preferred the legalistic style. While all age levels were in agreement as to the degree of importance placed on law enforcement tasks, higher age levels were more inclined to favor nonlaw enforcement tasks. Whites favored law enforcement tasks, and nonwhites inclined toward nonlaw enforcement tasks; those with lower family income levels preferred law enforcement tasks, as opposed to those with higher incomes; and respondents with higher levels of education placed less importance on police tasks. Finally, the overall image of the city's police was positive, although many respondents viewed the policemen's economic position as lower than it should have been. Tabular data are presented, and footnotes, 26 references and appendixes containing a census tract map and the questionnaire are included.