NCJ Number
223533
Journal
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Dated: 2008 Pages: 186-209
Date Published
2008
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Using survey data collected from police in Canada, India, and Japan, this study compared their occupational outlooks and view of the role of police in society.
Abstract
Of the 23 initial factors included in the analysis, 14 factors were similar in all 3 nations. This suggests the possibility of developing constructs for policing perspective that are neutral to national setting, which may then provide an empirical basis for developing police attitudinal scales that can be used in cross-cultural research. The fact that nine of the variables were not similar across the nations suggests that they will vary according to locality and can be dropped from comparative analysis of policing across cultures. The study found that distinctions between the legalistic and order-maintenance aspects of the police role tended to describe the conceptual thinking of officers in Japan and Canada, but were inadequate in capturing the perspective of Indian officers. Canadians expressed higher endorsement of the law orientation for policing and a lower endorsement of the order-maintenance orientation than the Japanese. Canadians expressed a clear preference for the "social order" concept; whereas, the Japanese gave the two factors approximately the same weight. Distinctions between "legalistic" and "watchman" styles of policing were less evident among Indian officers than the Canadians and Japanese. The survey in the Edmonton Police Department (Canada) yielded 384 returned questionnaires out of 500 distributed (76.8 percent). Out of 1,300 questionnaires distributed to police in Delhi (India), 957 were returned (73.5 percent). Out of a total of 850 questionnaires administered to officers serving in suburban communities in the Tokyo and Nagoya metropolitan areas, 630 were completed and returned. 9 tables and 65 references