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- Title
People and the police: an analysis of factors associated with police evaluation and support.
- Authors
Thornton, Leonard M.
- Abstract
The article focuses on police, crime and law and order situation in Canada. For the social sciences, such concerns have apparently manifested themselves in the appearance of numerous articles and books attempting to deal with the sources of attitudes toward crime, law enforcement, and the police. Explanations adduced to account for such variations range from those, which emphasize the role played by the psychological makeup of the individual to those that focus on culture and social structure. The role played by personal contacts with the police in engendering attitudes toward the police has also been emphasized by a number of writers. Public attitudes toward the police are largely determined by the behavior of the police themselves. Since 1954, a number of investigations have shown that those having greater personal contact with the police generally have the least favorable views of the police. While personal contact itself does play a role, the finding still remains that, regardless of such contact, certain groups hold very unfavorable views of the police.
- Subjects
CANADA; POLICE; SENSORY perception; PUBLIC opinion polls; SOCIAL structure; PERSONS
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 1975, Vol 1, Issue 3, p325
- ISSN
0318-6431
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3340416