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1 – 10 of over 1000Mario A. Davila, Deborah J. Hartley and Ben Brown
The purpose of this study is to gain a broad understanding of public perceptions of the police and violence.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to gain a broad understanding of public perceptions of the police and violence.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses survey data collected from a nationally representative sample (N = 1,223) by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago. Descriptive, bivariate correlational and multivariate regression analyses of the data were conducted.
Findings
Descriptive analyses show the populace is equally concerned about the police use of violence and violence against the police, but bivariate analyses indicate the two types of concern are unrelated, and multivariate regression analyses show that few variables impact both types of concern. Consistent with prior research, young people and racial/ethnic minorities reported greater concerns about police violence than did older adults and Whites, yet neither age nor race/ethnicity impacted concerns about violence against the police. Perceived mistreatment by the police was the only variable which impacted perceptions of police violence and violence against the police in a consistent and cogent manner.
Originality/value
This study is the first to examine public perceptions of the police as both the agents and victims of violence. The results indicate public perceptions of the police are more complex than was previously believed.
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Yung-Lien Lai, Fei Luo, Chia-Cheng Kang and Tzu-Ying Lo
While a substantial amount of research has been conducted in western societies exploring public attitudes toward police (ATP) among immigrants in recent decades, the question of…
Abstract
Purpose
While a substantial amount of research has been conducted in western societies exploring public attitudes toward police (ATP) among immigrants in recent decades, the question of how recently arrived immigrants view the police in Asian societies has been largely overlooked. This study aims to explore Southeast Asian immigrants' ATP in Taiwan and how assimilation, discrimination, affirmation, procedural justice, bifocal lenses and contact experiences – viewed simultaneously – impact their perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling methods, a total of 579 completed survey responses were collected in Taiwan with a response rate of 89%. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to examine key factors that impact immigrants' attitudes toward the Taiwanese police.
Findings
The findings suggest that procedural justice and assimilation are two robust and direct predictors of immigrants' attitudes toward Taiwanese police. Immigrants from Southeast Asian countries who perceive that they have been treated fairly by Taiwan police tended to report more positive ATP. Likewise, higher levels of assimilation boosted confidence in the police. In addition, both nationality and marital status had a significant impact on perceptions of the police.
Originality/value
This pioneering study examines immigrants' ATP among four groups of Southeast Asians in Taiwan —namely, immigrants from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. The use of SEM strengthens the robustness of the findings derived from this study.
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Abstract
Purpose
Police procedural justice is essential in shaping police legitimacy and public willingness to cooperate, yet factors that affect police fair treatment of citizens are not fully understood. Using the data of the National Police Research Platform (NPRP), Phase II, this study examines the effects of three key organizational factors (i.e. effective leadership, supervisory justice and department process fairness) on officers’ procedural justice in police stops.
Design/methodology/approach
Innovatively, this study links police data with citizens’ data and conducts multilevel analyses on the effects of a host of citizen, officer, incident, and, importantly, agency characteristics on officer behaviors during over 5,000 police stops nested within 48 police agencies.
Findings
The results showed that the fairness of the departmental process had a positive effect on officer procedural justice, while the fairness of the supervisor was inversely associated with procedural justice on the street.
Originality/value
The linked data demonstrated that organizational fairness affected street procedure justice.
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Dae-Young Kim and Scott W. Phillips
The present study examines the risk of citizens encountering police use of intermediate and deadly force, as opposed to using physical force, given a set of individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study examines the risk of citizens encountering police use of intermediate and deadly force, as opposed to using physical force, given a set of individual, situational and neighborhood variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses data from 2003 to 2016 in the Dallas Open Data Portal. Two-level multinomial logistic regression is used to analyze the data.
Findings
The effects of citizen race differ across the types of police force. Overall, citizen race plays no significant role in the officer's decision to shoot firearms at citizens. However, there is evidence of intra-racial disparity in officer-involved shootings (OISs) between Hispanic citizens and officers. African American citizens are disproportionately exposed to display-but-don't shoot incidents, while Hispanic citizens have a lower risk of encountering police use of intermediate weapons.
Originality/value
The study helps to understand how citizen and officer race influence and interact across various types of police force. Implications of the results are offered in relation to relevant literature.
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Anse Stevens, Axelle Mangelschots, Yinthe Feys and Antoinette Verhage
This article provides an overview of the literature characteristics of empirical research on topics related to police careers from 2000 to 2021. Methodology, distribution in time…
Abstract
Purpose
This article provides an overview of the literature characteristics of empirical research on topics related to police careers from 2000 to 2021. Methodology, distribution in time and space and types of publication are presented. Recommendations for new research avenues are given.
Design/methodology/approach
Eight scoping reviews on specific topics were carried out by criminology students under the close guidance and supervision of the first author, an academic researcher. The reviews followed the same procedure, enabling an overarching reflection.
Findings
The scoping reviews resulted in 179 unique publications for analysis. It appears that the topic of police professional competencies is studied more often in the field of police careers (n = 55), in contrast to informal learning in police training (n = 4) which was studied the least frequently. Since 2012, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of publications. Publications in scientific journals are by far the most common (n = 153), as is a quantitative research design (n = 123). All topics have been studied in Europe and North America.
Research limitations/implications
More qualitative research and international dissemination of empirical results are recommended to gain a deeper understanding of police careers. As for the limitations, specific topics were selected, which limits the scope of the findings. Working with students for data collection has its benefits in terms of workload, but comes with potential limitations in terms of quality. It is recommended to conduct a screening using the four-eyed principle, as was done here by the first and second authors. Additionally, the review protocol (e.g. keywords and databases) has an influence on the outcome. Different choices may lead to different results.
Originality/value
A comprehensive analysis of police career literature is made based on eight scoping reviews that followed the same procedure. It allows to study the literature in a broad sense rather than studying one topic in depth.
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Hyeyoung Lim, Brian Lawton and John J. Sloan
This article aims to synthesize published research on the policing of Asian communities in the United States.
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to synthesize published research on the policing of Asian communities in the United States.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a systematic literature review using PRISMA 2020 guidelines.
Findings
Sixteen studies were reviewed. Five examined violence by police against Asian community members and reported rates for Asians closer to those against Whites than against members of other groups. One study found no relationship between violence against police and increased minority representation on the force. Four studies reported conflicting results regarding traffic stops of Asian motorists and in general perceptions of police anti-Asian bias. One study illustrated how racialization processes reproduce inequality both between racial-ethnic categories and within them. Five studies examined Asian community members’ general attitudes toward/satisfaction with police and reported—with qualifications—generally favorable attitudes and satisfaction with them.
Originality/value
This is the first systematic literature review of policing Asian communities in the United States.
Rashmi Singh and Lalatendu Kesari Jena
This study aims to test an integrated model that examines the relationship between the service qualities of police at any urban tourist destination and the tourist urban…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test an integrated model that examines the relationship between the service qualities of police at any urban tourist destination and the tourist urban destination advocacy at tourist cities in the Shimla region of India, where tourists’ trust in police acts as a mediating variable. This study mainly focused on the type of service shown by police officials to develop trust among the tourists, resulting in their urban destination advocacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The questionnaire was adopted from previously developed and validated scales. The questionnaire was administered to different tourists who came to India. This study used the bootstrapping technique and structural equation modelling (SEM) to address the research questions and test the hypotheses.
Findings
This study results indicate that trust in the police mediates the relationship between police service quality and tourist satisfaction at any urban tourist destination. The study’s findings add to the literature on tourists’ trust in policing tourist sites, police service quality and leader behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The above-tested model has a very limited number of constructs. There are a variety of additional antecedents (e.g. police organization culture and urban destination attributes) and consequences (word-of-mouth referrals and customer identification) that could be considered for future research to develop a more comprehensive model. The cross-sectional study raises concerns about the causal relationships between constructs in the tested model. More substantial evidence of causality via longitudinal and experimental studies is needed.
Originality/value
The study’s findings added a chapter to the literature by identifying how police service quality impacts tourist trust building and urban destination advocacy.
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Gordon Abner and Jung Hyub Lee
One of the main roadblocks to increasing uptake of national police accreditation (i.e. accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)) is…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the main roadblocks to increasing uptake of national police accreditation (i.e. accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA)) is concern among some in law enforcement that promoting national standards for policing would undermine local control. The purpose of this study is to assess whether CALEA-accredited police departments are more (or less) likely than non-CALEA-accredited police departments to utilize information from resident surveys to inform agency operations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilizes data from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey and cardinality matching, a quasi-experimental approach, to estimate the relationship between CALEA accreditation status and utilization of information from resident surveys among municipal police departments.
Findings
We find that agencies that subscribe to national police accreditation are more likely to use resident surveys to prioritize crime/disorder problems, evaluate officer or agency performance, guide training and development and inform agency policies and procedures compared to matched agencies that do not subscribe to national police accreditation.
Originality/value
While there is research on the effects of national police accreditation on traditional policing outcomes, there is a paucity of research on whether national police accreditation undermines the ability of local residents to affect policing standards. The findings from this study suggest that national police accreditation may enhance the power of local residents to affect policing.
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Jessica L. Collett and Kayla D. R. Pierce
We show political divisions in perceptions of police officers even before the divisive political and social events of 2016. We do so using respondents' interpretations of…
Abstract
Purpose
We show political divisions in perceptions of police officers even before the divisive political and social events of 2016. We do so using respondents' interpretations of surprising and ambiguous headlines involving police officers (e.g., assumptions about what happened or who was involved).
Methodology/Approach
We use affect control theory's ABO event structure and derivations of this structure to construct a set of headlines that describe ostensibly good people (A) doing bad things (B) to other good people (O) or are ambiguous on one or more of these components. We present 517 MTurk respondents with a set of seven headlines and collect quantitative and qualitative data on their reactions to, and interpretations of, these headline events.
Findings
Police headlines generate interest among readers. When interpreting events, respondents are less likely to modify or redefine police officers compared to other actors. However, assumptions related to ambiguous events involving police differ by political orientation. Liberals view police more negatively than conservatives, in part because they imagine them doing worse things to slightly better people. Qualitative analyses support and shed light on the mechanisms underlying this and other partisan effects.
Research Limitations
The research was designed to examine interest in headline structure, not specific actors. Thus, the patterns unique to police and political differences were not an original focus. We believe these inductive results are informative, but a study expressly designed to test hypotheses regarding perceptions of events with police officers is recommended for future work.
Practical and Social Implications
Understanding the political divide in perceptions of police and the potential of media coverage for exacerbating these effects is essential and related to ACTs growing interest in meaning divergence.
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