Youth Perceptions of the Police

Abstract

The relevance of examining juveniles' attitudes toward the police has been firmly established in the literature. Employing group-based trajectory modeling, the present study builds upon this previous research by estimating police attitudinal trajectories among a general sample of youths. The models produced a 5-group solution for both males and females, with four of the trajectories remaining relatively stable over the time observed and one noticeably experiencing a downward trend. Furthermore, of the items making up the police attitudinal scale, for several of the groups, the item measuring prejudice most consistently oscillated away from the trajectory profile. Policy implications are discussed.

Investigative Resources and Crime Clearances: A Group-Based Trajectory Approach

“…They have proven especially helpful with identifying and explaining the behaviors of subpopulations of offenders (e.g., Nagin, 2005; Nagin & Piquero, 2010; Piquero, 2008). Group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) has only recently started to gain traction outside the offender context (e.g., Schuck, 2013; Stewart, Morris, & Weir, 2014). It has not been used in the modeling of crime clearance rates, but it has been applied in the crime rate context (e.g., Schupp & Rivera, 2010; Weisburd et al, 2004).…”

"I realized that cops are just regular people" :changing youth attitudes toward the police through community policing programming.

“…The police are often the only agents of the criminal justice system that youth have contact with (White, 1994). Youth rarely progress beyond this point of contact and into the court system largely because of the inherent flexibility within the youth justice system and also the general discretionary nature of policing (Stewart et al, 2014). Youth attitudes about the police are usually formed as a result of their initial experiences with police officers and it is argued that these attitudes will persist into adulthood (Friedman et al, 2004;Hinds, 2007).…”

“…Few studies with adolescents have found gender to be a significant predictor of attitudes toward the police. However, based on the limited findings, male youth generally hold less favorable attitudes toward the police compared to female youth (Stewart et al, 2014). For example, Friedman et al (2004) found that 52% of the girls in their sample felt disrespected by the police compared to 68% of boys.…”

“…The majority of studies examining attitudes toward the police have focused on adult populations (Geistman & Smith, 2007). Despite the large body of literature suggesting that adults hold more favorable attitudes toward the police compared to youth, youth continue to be ignored in the research (O'Connor, 2009;Stewart, Morris & Weir, 2014). The constant privileging of adult attitudes has left a gap in our understanding of youth-police relationships especially within the broader community policing context (Geistman & Smith, 2007).…”

To Serve and Protect Whom? Using Composite Counter-Storytelling to Explore Black and Indigenous Youth Experiences and Perceptions of the Police in Canada

“…Research also suggests that negative perceptions of the police may increase fear of crime, lead to distrust in other social institutions and reduce citizen compliance with the law (Brown & Benedict, 2002;Tyler & Fagan, 2008;Vogel, 2011). Therefore, having a better understanding of racialized youth perspectives has been identified as an important area of study (Gau & Brunson, 2010;Stewart et al, 2014).…”