Attitudes Towards Police: What are Young Adults' Perception of Police?

Gwendolyn Smith

Research Proposal
Methods and Techniques of Social Research
November 28, 2014
Attitudes towards Police:
What Are Young Adults Perception of Police?

Introduction Young adults pass perception on everyone they encounter. Law enforcement organizations are prime subjects to their perceptions. During my twenty years of service as a New York City Police Officer, I have encountered daily hassles, uncooperative behavior and hostile behavior. In essence, a general lack of no respect for police authority. I interacted with young adults in various capacities from minor to felonious crimes, domestic disputes, rowdiness and other calls for service that may alter their opinion of police. The purpose of this study is to identify young adult’s views of police. Are their views positive or negative? I will examine multiple variables which shape young adults attitudes toward law enforcement officials and find how these interpretations developed and the sources from which they derived.
Literature Review This report examines young adults’ views of law enforcement. It examines the impact of several variables such as race, gender, police contacts, and perceptions of neighborhood and police and media accounts which shape young adults’ opinions. “Negative perception on the part of young people towards police has been linked to the tendency of young people to come to the attention of police more often than older people” (Cunneen & White, 2007). Young people are more likely to be the victim of an offence, engage in criminal activity (Hua, Baker & Poynton, 2006), be charged with an offence, engage in risky, delinquent or antisocial behaviors that may generate police interest (McAra & McVie, 2005) or spend more time in public spaces which may increase visibility and police scrutiny and aggravate the need for police to demonstrate control (Cunneen & White, 2007). While these factors bring young people and police together, research conducted

References: Alder, C., O’Connor, I., Warner, K., & White, R. (1992). Perceptions of the treatment of juveniles in the legal systems, National Youth affairs Research Scheme. New York: Hobart. Amorso, D., M.,& Ware, E.,E Brown, B & Benedict, WR (2002), ‘Perceptions of the police: past findings, methodological issues, conceptual issues and policy implications’, Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, (25): 543-580. Brunson, R. K. & Miller, J. (2006). Gender, Race and Urban Policing: The Experience of African American youths. Gender and Society, (20): 531-552. Chow, P. H. H. (2011). Adolescent attitudes toward the police in western Canadian city. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management. (34): 638-653. Cunneen, C., & White, R., (2007). Juvenile Justice: Youth and Crime in Australia, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Collins, J., Noble, G., Poynting, S., & Taber, P. (2000). Kebabs, kids, cops and crime: Youth, ethnicity and crime, Pluto Press, Annandale. Crawford, A. (2009). Criminalizing sociability through ant-social behavior legislation: Dispersal powers, young people and the police. Youth Justice, (9): 5-26. Cao, L., (2011) Dauvergne, M., & Turner, J. (2010). Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2009. Juristat, (30): 1-3. Dixon, T Gannon, M. (2005). General Social Survey on Victimization, Cycle 18: An Overview of Findings. Ministry of Industry, Ottawa, Canada. Graber, D., (1980). Crime news and the Public. New York: Praeger. Hua, J., Baker, J., & Poynotn, S. (2006). Generation Y and crime: A longitudinal study of contact with the NSW criminal courts before the age of 21, Crime and Justice Bulletin, No. 96, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Sydney. Lichter, L., & Lichter, S. (1983). Prime Time Crime. Washington, D. C: Media Institute. Maxson, C., Hennigan, K., & Sloane, D. C. (2003). Factors that influence public opinion of the police. National Institute of Justice: Research for practice. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice. McAra, L., & McVie, S., (2005). ‘The usual suspects? Street-life, young people and the police’, Criminal Justice, (1): 5-36. MacDonald, J., Stokes, R. J., Ridgeway, G., & Riley, K. J. (2007). Race, neighborhood context and perceptions of injustice by the police in Cincinnati. Urban Studies, (2007), 2567-2585. Maguire, E. R. and Johnson, D. (2010). Measuring Public Perceptions of the Police. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management. (4): 703-730. Paoline, E.A. & Terrill, W. (2005). The Impact of Police Culture on Traffic Stops Searches: An Analysis of Attitudes and Behavior. Policing, (3): 455-472. Perrault, S., Suave, J., & Burns, M Radford, K., Hamilton, J. & Jarman, N. (2005). ‘It’s there word against mine’: Young people’s attitudes to the police complaints procedure in Northern Ireland. Children & Society, (19): 360-370. Roberts, J Shuck, A. & Rosenbaum, D.P. (2005). Global and Neighborhood Attitudes toward the Police: Differentiation by Race, Ethnicity and Type of Contact. Journal of Quantitative Criminology (21): 391-418. Statistics Canada (2005a). Children and youths as victims of violent crime (2003). The Daily, April 20. Statistics Canada (2005b). General social survey: Criminal victimization (2004). The Daily, November. Statistics Canada (2007). Police-reported crime statistics, (2007). The Daily, July 21. Taylor, T. J., Turner, K. B., Esbensen, F. A., & Winfree, L. T., (2001). ‘Coppin’ in an attitude: Attitudinal differences among juvenile toward police. Journal of Criminal Justice, (29): 295-305. Tyler T Tyler, T.R. (2005). Policing in Black and White: Ethnic Group Differences in Trust and Confidence in the Police: Police Quarterly, (3): 322-342. Weitzer, R Weitzer, R., Tuch, S. A., & Skogan, W. G. (2008). Police-Community Relations in a Majority-Black City. The George Washington University. Wright, I Zamble, E., & Annesley, P., (1987). Some determinants of public attitudes toward the police: Some conceptual issues. Journal of Criminal Justice, (10): 211-230. INTERNET RESOURCES Justice on Trial. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/racial-profiling2011/racial_profiling2011.pdf