Political Alienation and Public Satisfaction with Police Services

Bibliographic Data

ID9213482
AuthorsP R Benson (0000-0001-7797-5613, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year1981
Volume24
Issue1
Pages45-64
Publication date1981-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Pacific Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-8919 • E-ISSN: 2330-0736
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/1388792
OpenAlexW2770435115
LanguageEN
Citations received33
References cited15

Policemen and policewomen are the most visible and obtrusive agents of governmental authority and power to the average citizen. This being the case, what the public think about police and their work is highly important—and may well serve as a significant social indicator of the political health of the society as a whole. Using telephone survey data gathered in the St. Louis SMSA during the Summer of 1977 as part of a major study of police services, a number of hypotheses regarding the influence of political alienation, perceived local crime, perceived police integrity, race, and social class upon public evaluation of local police performance were tested. Public ratings of police were generally quite high. However, those lacking trust in police integrity, who viewed crime as increasing, who expressed estrangement from the political process, as well as those who were nonwhite or lower class were more likely to rate police performance negatively than others. In addition, a number of noteworthy conditional effects were uncovered utilizing the nonmetric least-squares estimation procedure developed by Grizzle, Starmer, and Koch (1969). The generalizability of these conditional effects needs to be examined in future research within this area

Alienation · Criminology · Fear of crime · Generalizability theory · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Public relations · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Gun Ownership and Violence Research · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Social Psychology