Global and Neighborhood Attitudes Toward the Police: Differentiation by Race, Ethnicity and Type of Contact

The impact of race/ethnicity, neighborhood context, and police/citizen interaction on residents' attitudes toward the police

“…In addition, several studies extended the scope of investigation by comparing public attitudes toward the police between America and other nations (Cao et al, 1998;Cao & Zhao, 2005). The findings reported in these studies provide important feedback to police agencies about how they can improve the quality of their performance and maintain high levels of public trust (Brandl et al, 1994;Frank et al, 1996;Ren et al, 2005;Schuck & Rosenbaum, 2005).…”

“…In almost all studies there was a global measure of public perceptions of the police such as an index of performance of the police (Brandl, Frank, Worden, & Bynum, 1994;Jesilow, Meyer, & Namazzi, 1995;Reisig & Correia, 1997;Reisig & Giacomazzi, 1998;Weitzer & Tuch, 2006;Wu, Sun, & Triplett, 2009). After assessing the global attitudes toward the police, many studies further explored additional dimensions, including the quality of police service (Reisig & Parks, 2000); perceptions of racially bias policing (Engel, 2005;Weitzer & Tuch, 2006), the quality of police/citizen interactions (Bartsch & Cheurprakobkit, 2004), the perceptions of police abuse (Schuck & Rosenbaum, 2005), and the evaluation of confidence in the police (Cao, Frank, & Cullen, 1996;Ren, Cao, Lovrich, & Gaffney, 2005;Schuck, Rosenbaum, & Hawkins, 2008).…”

Using Research to Inform Policy: The Role of Public Attitude Surveys in Understanding Public Confidence and Police Contact

“…Despite the undoubted importance of media and other social representations in informing and even moulding opinions about the police (Mawby 2002;Leishman and Mason 2003) -and despite decreasing levels of both public confidence and police contact -it thus seems likely that personal experience will remain a key factor for many people (for US evidence on this see: Reisig and Parks 2000;Schuck and Rosenbaum 2005;Tyler and Fagan 2006;and Skogan, 2006). Moreover, vicarious experience -stories told by others about the police -may be equally, if not more, important (Miller et al 2004;Rosenbaum et al 2005), implying that the effects of personal experience may spread beyond those directly involved (cf.…”

“…In practical terms, the question now becomes: how can we best advise on a practical way forward? In this light it is perhaps reassuring that there is some emerging evidence in the MPS and in the USA that contacts judged to be satisfactory by the public can have some small positive impact on opinions of the police (from the UK, see Bradford, Jackson and Stanko in press;Bradford 2008; from the US see Schuck and Rosenbaum 2005;Tyler and Fagan 2006). Recent analysis of the Metropolitan Police's Public Attitude Survey has shown that well-received contact is associated with small but significant increase in opinions about police fairness and, in some cases, level of engagement with the community (Bradford, Jackson and Stanko in press).…”

Consequences of concurrent and simultaneous amphetamine-type stimulant and alcohol use among young adults: hazardous drinking, antisocial behaviour, and contact with police

“…Individuals' personal interactions with police and interactions they hear about from their family and friends have a significant impact on their perceptions of police and policing (Schuck & Rosenbaum, 2005). Evidence suggests that, in general, people's perceptions of police behaviour (e.g., whether police act in a fair and respectful manner) have either an equal or more substantial impact on their perceptions of police and policing than their judgements of police performance (e.g., whether police are good at controlling crime; Hinds & Murphy, 2007).…”