RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF RACE AND ETHNICITY ON CITIZEN ATTITUDES TOWARD THE POLICE

• NCJ Number: 142441
• Author(s): V J Webb; C E Marshall
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined attitudes toward various characteristics of police among a sample of 229 black Americans, 210 Hispanic Americans, and 351 white Americans in metropolitan Omaha, Nebraska.

Abstract

The data analyzed were collected through a telephone survey conducted in the spring of 1991. Five scales were used to measure attitudes toward the police. Four of the scales were replications of those developed and used by Dunham and Alpert (1988); the fifth scale was developed and used by the researchers in three previous studies. The four scales of Dunham and Alpert pertain to officer demeanor, responsibility for crime control, discretion, and active patrol strategies. The fifth scale taps attitudes toward the professional and personal characteristics of police officers. Four sets of variables used in previous similar research were included in this study: demographic variables (gender and age); social class (education and income); contact with police (called for service or been stopped by police); and race-ethnicity. The analysis indicates that the largest effects are for the attitudinal scales that tap officer demeanor and officer characteristics. None of the variables used in the analysis explain much of the variation in the scales that tap responsibility for crime control, discretion, and active patrol strategies. When compared to Hispanic and white respondents, blacks were less likely to agree with positively worded statements about police officer demeanor. Hispanics also were less likely than whites to agree with positive statements about the personal and professional characteristics of police officers. Hispanic respondents were most likely to agree with statements that asserted that only the police can control crime at the neighborhood level; and a smaller, but significant effect was found for black respondents. Generally, these findings reaffirm the importance of race and ethnicity in influencing attitudes toward the police. 23 references and appended scale items