NCJ Number
212393
Journal
International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 14 Dated: 2004 Pages: 25-48
Date Published
2004
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This study examined the degree to which public and police assessments of the seriousness of police misconduct differed between the United States, an established democracy with a common law tradition and highly decentralized police, and Croatia, a country in transition with a civil law tradition and a highly centralized police.
Abstract
Samples of members of the public and police officers in both countries were asked to evaluate the severity of 11 hypothetical cases of police misconduct. The sample of Croatian police officers was a stratified national sample that included a substantial proportion of police officers from the entire country. The sample of Croatian college students consisted of 504 students enrolled at the University of Zagreb. The U.S. sample of police consisted of sworn officers from 30 police agencies, with municipal police agencies overrepresented. The sample of U.S. college students consisted of 375 students enrolled in sociology and criminal justice classes at the University of Delaware. Each of the questionnaires contained 10 cases that described police corruption and 1 case that described police use of excessive force. Following each scenario, respondents were asked to rate the severity of the police behavior. A comparison of the absolute scores for seriousness by police officers and college students within each country showed that police officers tended to assess the police misconduct as more serious than did the college students. This pattern was true for both countries. The rankings of seriousness were also similar for the samples across countries. These findings expand upon previous research by showing that the perceptions of the severity of police misconduct are shared across cultures and transcend national boundaries. 5 tables, 32 references, and appended police corruption case scenarios