Racial and ethnic disparities in youth perceptions of police in the community and school: considering the effects of multilevel factors

PurposeRecent publicized incidents involving police and youth, particularly minorities, may undermine attitudes toward police. This research examines the effect of race/ethnicity on youth attitudes toward police in two contexts.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilizes survey data from 17,000 youth in California aggregated with data on poverty and crime. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is used to examine the effects of individual and structural factors on perceptions of the police in the community and in school.FindingsRace/ethnicity is related to perceptions of police in both contexts even after accounting for structural factors, with Blacks and Hispanics having less positive perceptions than Whites and Asians. Differences in perceptions between racial/ethnic groups were larger for police in the community than school police. Structural factors were associated with perceptions of police in the community but not at school.Originality/valueThis study differs from much of the previous literature examining race and attitudes toward police, which has largely focused on adults. The current study examines youth attitudes toward the police in two separate contexts and considers the influence of structural factors.

The link between police cadets' field training and attitudes toward police work in China: a longitudinal study

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effect and duration of supervised field training on police cadets' worldview of police work in China.Design/methodology/approachThe four-wave longitudinal data were collected from graduate students who were pursuing their master's degree in a national Chinese police university from 2016 to 2018. Independent variables including demographic characteristics and knowledge along with experience gained from the internship were used to explain police cadets' attitudes toward police work. Ordinary least square (OLS) regression models were used in the current study.FindingsFindings derived from multiple regression analyses suggest that police cadets' attitudes toward police work are conducive to the “shock” of the real-world experience after three-month field training. However, the effect of the field training on police cadets' attitudes toward police work is temporary, not enduring.Research limitations/implicationsThe data for this study were collected from one national police university, and the findings reported here may not be generalized.Practical implicationsPolice field training is important for cadets to develop positive view of police work. It provides practical knowledge for police training and socializes cadets before entering into the law enforcement filed, avoiding the financial cost of resignation. However, the influence of field training is temporal. Hence, it is more appropriate for police administrators to arrange police cadets' field training close to their graduation date, the third year of their college education.Originality/valueThis study can be considered as an extension of relevant research on law-enforcement-related field training reported in the United States. However, it goes beyond the existing literature by using longitudinal data to answer a long-overdue question: Does supervised field training change the worldview of cadets concerning police work?

A field experiment on community policing and police legitimacy

Despite decades of declining crime rates, longstanding tensions between police and the public continue to frustrate the formation of cooperative relationships necessary for the function of the police and the provision of public safety. In response, policy makers continue to promote community-oriented policing (COP) and its emphasis on positive, nonenforcement contact with the public as an effective strategy for enhancing public trust and police legitimacy. Prior research designs, however, have not leveraged the random assignment of police–public contact to identify the causal effect of such interactions on individual-level attitudes toward the police. Therefore, the question remains: Do positive, nonenforcement interactions with uniformed patrol officers actually cause meaningful improvements in attitudes toward the police? Here, we report on a randomized field experiment conducted in New Haven, CT, that sheds light on this question and identifies the individual-level consequences of positive, nonenforcement contact between police and the public. Findings indicate that a single instance of positive contact with a uniformed police officer can substantially improve public attitudes toward police, including legitimacy and willingness to cooperate. These effects persisted for up to 21 d and were not limited to individuals inclined to trust and cooperate with the police prior to the intervention. This study demonstrates that positive nonenforcement contact can improve public attitudes toward police and suggests that police departments would benefit from an increased focus on strategies that promote positive police–public interactions.

Group position, consciousness and perception of police fairness among urban residents in China

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the importance of group position and consciousness in predicting people’s perceptions of police fairness in China. Design/methodology/approach This study used survey data collected from 1,095 respondents in Shanghai. Multivariate regression was used to analyze the effects of group positions and group consciousness variables on perceived police fairness, controlling for personal, experiential and neighborhood factors. Findings Regardless of their own hukou status, individuals who live in high migrant areas expressed less favorable attitudes toward police fairness. Meanwhile, people who displayed greater degrees of sensitivity to bias in law rated police fairness less favorably, whereas people who expressed higher levels of moral alignment with the law and belief in no choice but to obey the police rated police fairness more favorably. Lower levels of neighborhood disorder and higher degrees of cohesion were also associated with more positive evaluations of police fairness. Research limitations/implications The authors’ measure of migrant concentration was constructed based on respondents’ own assessments of this neighborhood feature. Future studies should consider using objective measures to supplement the construction of migrant concentration variables. The authors’ group consciousness variables are limited as they are general, non-residential status specific and only capture part of the traditionally conceptualized variable of group consciousness. Future study should employ better-worded items that can tap precisely into people’s various dimensions of social consciousness based on their group status. Practical implications Training officers has to give a high priority to the principles of both procedural and distributive justice, and implement performance and evaluation policies that support fair and responsive police behavior, particularly during situations where citizens report crime to and seek help from the police. Originality/value Despite their high relevance, variables reflecting group position have received marginal attention in previous research on public evaluations of the police in China. This study represents a first attempt to examine how the interactions between residence status and the level of neighborhood migrant concentration influence Chinese attitudes toward police fairness.

Contact is a stronger predictor of attitudes toward police than race: a state-of-the-art review

Purpose This scoping review thoroughly scanned research on race, contacts with police and attitudes toward police. An exploratory meta-analysis then assessed the strength of their associations and interaction in Canada and the USA. Key knowledge gaps and specific future research needs, synthetic and primary, were identified. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach A germinal methodological framework for conducting scoping reviews was used (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005). The authors searched for published or unpublished research over the past 15 years and retrieved 33 eligible surveys, 19 of which were included in a sample-weighted meta-analysis. Findings The independent association of contact with attitudes toward police was estimated to be three times larger than the independent race association. Three large knowledge gaps were identified. Almost nothing is known about these associations among specific racial groups as they were typically aggregated into visible minority groupings. The authors have essentially no knowledge yet about specific racial group by a specific type of contact interactions. There is also a lack of generalizable knowledge as research has been largely restricted to locales. Originality/value This is the first research synthesis of race and attitudes toward the police that incorporated contacts with the police. Its observation of the relative importance of contacts suggested a great preventive potential. This scoping review identified needs for a full systematic research review and a formal meta-analysis to plan future primary research including large national studies that are truly representative of Canada and America’s diversity. Such will be needed to advance more confident knowledge about the factors that would support more trusted relationships between police and people in the communities they aim to serve.