Officer friendly
Changing children's attitudes about the police
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11043057 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Valerian J Derlega (Old Dominion University, corresponding author), James R K Heinen (Old Dominion University), Nancy K Eberhardt (Old Dominion University) |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 220-227 |
| Publication date | 1979-07-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Community Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-4392 • E-ISSN: 1520-6629 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/1520-6629(197907)7:3<220::aid-jcop2290070305>3.0.co;2-# |
| OpenAlex | W1521091651 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 7 |
A police-community relations program in elementary schools, called the “Officer Friendly Program,” was evaluated. The program attempted to increase awareness of legitimate services performed by the police and to improve rapport with uniformed police officers. Males (second graders) who used a “Crime Resistance Activity Book” or had the book and officer visits in their classes were more likely than a control group to represent officers as helping someone in a situation where a crime had occurred. Females did not change their beliefs about a police officer's role as a result of degree of participation in the program. Also, white children (male and female) who had officer visits stood closer to an unfamiliar police officer during a conversation than those who did not have officer visits (i.e., control or book-alone conditions). These results were not found for black children. Previous writers have been either unduly optimistic or pessimistic about the possible impact of police-community relations programs in the schools. Results of this study show that beneficial effects of an Officer Friendly Program relate to child's sex and race as well as to the type of evaluation measure used.
Medical education · Officer · Political science · Public relations · Education Discipline and Inequality · Law · Medicine · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |