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- Title
Police perceptions of public respect and extra-legal use of force: a reconsideration of folk wisdom and pluralistic ignorance.
- Authors
Koenig, Daniel J.
- Abstract
The article highlights public perception about police in Canada. The over-perceptions of negative public evaluations are of more than academic interest since police perceptions of public disrespect were cited in earlier studies as the most frequent police justifications for roughing up civilians. In Canada, a 1969 public opinion poll, conducted by the Canadian Institute of Public Opinion, found 76 percent approval and only 11 percent disapproval of the performance of duties by the police force in the respondents' communities. Not only did the Canadian public report that they received good value for their tax dollar from the police and that they approved of the way police were doing their job, but it was also found that the public gave a high prestige rating, superior to that for most jobs, to the occupation of police. The police perceptions of public disrespect, or of a deterioration in public respect for the police, were unwarranted. Police perceptions of the public's respect for them tended to be remarkably accurate.
- Subjects
CANADA; COMPLAINTS against police; POLITICAL science; PUBLIC opinion polls; SOCIAL surveys; SENSORY perception
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Sociology, 1975, Vol 1, Issue 3, p313
- ISSN
0318-6431
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3340415