Perceptions of the police: Past findings, methodological issues, conceptual issues and policy implications

This research updates and expands upon Decker’s article `̀ Citizen attitudes toward the police: a review of past findings and suggestions for future policy’’ by summarizing the findings from more than 100 articles on perceptions of and attitudes toward the police. Initially, the value of research on attitudes toward the police is discussed. Then the research pertaining to the impact of individual level variables (e.g. race) and contextual level variables (e.g. neighborhood) on perceptions of the police is reviewed. Studies of juveniles’ attitudes toward the police, perceptions of police policies and practices, methodological issues and conceptual issues are also discussed. This review of the literature indicates that only four variables (age, contact with police, neighborhood, and race) have consistently been proven to affect attitudes toward the police. However, there are interactive effects between these and other variables which are not yet understood; a finding which indicates that theoretical generalizations about attitudes toward police should be made with caution. Introduction It was Bellman’s (1935) `̀ Police service rating scale’’ which provided the original impetus for studies of public perceptions of the police. With a little assistance from August Vollmer, Bellman (1935, p. 75) developed the scale as a method of rating `̀ a police organization according to certain standards’’. Shortly thereafter, Parratt (1936, 1938) offered suggestions for improving Bellman’s scale and developed a survey instrument to measure citizen evaluations of the police. Parratt (1938, p. 739) argued that, while an internal evaluation of police effectiveness was useful, the police also needed a method of determining `̀what is desired or approved by an effective sector of citizen opinion’’. Although research on public perceptions of the police dates back to the era of August Vollmer, it is only within the last few decades that it has gained much attention. One of the best known works in this field is Decker’s (1981) article `̀ Citizen attitudes toward the police: a review of past findings and suggestions for future policy.’’ Decker (1981) provided an analysis of the effects that individual variables (e.g. race, socioeconomic status) and contextual variables (e.g. crime rates, victimization) have on attitudes toward the police. As the body of T h e c u r r e n t is s u e a n d f u l l te x t a r c h iv e o f th is jo u r n a l i s a v a i la b le a t http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1363-951X .htm The authors would like to thank the Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their time, efforts, and valuable contributions to this work.