NCJ Number
141995
Journal
American Journal of Police Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: (1992) Pages: 113-125
Date Published
1992
Length
13 pages
Annotation
In 1988 a man took 80 children and 4 teachers hostage in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, hoping to gain the publicity received by 2 Native Americans who had taken a group of newspaper employees hostage in North Carolina the week before; as a result of the first incident, the governor authorized an investigation into the abuse of minorities' rights. A descriptive interview was designed to measure the attitudes of a random sample of 103 Tuscaloosa residents regarding police handling of the hostage incident.
Abstract
The survey was intended to measure how the stimulus incident affected the subjects' attitudes toward police. All of the subjects were aware of the hostage-taking incident; their information had been obtained through newspaper and television news coverage. There seemed to be several types of respondents in terms of attitudes toward the police. The small minority who had strong negative feelings about the police had had those feelings reinforced by newspaper accounts of the hostage-taking incident. Those with a positive orientation supported the use of force by the police and felt they were misunderstood by the media. Most of the respondents had a positive attitude toward police, although they felt some sympathy for the offender in this case. However, the researchers noted that the police success in resolving the hostage situation was virtually ignored by the public because of the use of force against an offender for whom the public had some measure of sympathy. Nevertheless, the news coverage was balanced and accurate without sensationalism. 21 references