NCJ Number
225350
Journal
International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2008 Pages: 406-434
Date Published
December 2008
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This study used data from the International Crime Victimization Survey and the World Values Survey in identifying the determinants of public support for the police in 28 European and North American countries.
Abstract
The findings indicate that public support for the police, whether it involves a general attitude toward the police or an assessment of their performance in a particular function, is related to respondents’ individual characteristics, their experience with the police, police-related variables, and country-specific variables. Respondents’ individual characteristics, namely their gender and age, were related to both general and specific support for the police. Age proved to be an important explanatory variable even when experience with the police and country-specific variables were included in the model. Probably because of different experiences with the police, older respondents tended to have more positive views of the police. Also, in both general and specific support for police, women were more likely than men to have a positive view of police, perhaps because men were likely to have more direct contacts with the police in a law enforcement context. As expected, compared to those who were victims of crime, not having been a crime victim was related to a more positive evaluation of the police’s ability to control crime. Being asked by the police to pay a bribe in order to avoid being charged for an offense resulted in the view that police are corrupt. General views of the police were also strongly related to views of other parts of the government (the armed forces, legislature, and the legal system). In addition, police-related characteristics (police size, percentage of women as a measure of diversity in the police, and police structure) shaped views of the police. 4 tables, 1 figure, 3 notes, and 83 references