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1 ESSAY ELEVEN Essay Eleven Kaylie Shannon Eastern Kentucky University

2 ESSAY ELEVEN Essay Eleven Public perceptions of the police differ from age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and contact with the police. “A liberal or conservative ideology affects how people perceive the police. For the most part, the general public tends to view police positively, but there are areas within most jurisdictions where they are viewed negatively. Public perceptions of what police do and how effective they are affect public participation in crime-reduction programs and political support for police, police programs, and crime-related legislation. Numerous groups and subgroups of people within each jurisdiction may have differing perceptions of police in dealing with community programs” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, pp. 378-379). “Even though citizens support police generally, this support is not uniform across all groups” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, p. 379). With age, “older persons tend to view police more positively than younger people do. Younger persons are resistant and less respectful to authority figures and they also value their freedom and resent control” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, p. 380). When police officers target youth for minor violations, they see this as police trying to take away their freedom. With race, “white people most often have higher opinions of police, and are more supportive of aggressive crime-control measures, and are skeptical of criticisms of police. African Americans, on the other hand, consistently rate the police lower. This is evidenced by the Black Lives Matter movement where citizens protest excessive use of force against African Americans” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, pp. 380-381). Carter and Cheurprakobkit researched on Hispanic’s attitudes towards police. Carter “found that Hispanics believed the police did a poor job of investigating crimes, had a bad attitude, needed to decrease response times, and reduce the level of discrimination against Hispanics” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, p. 381). “However,

3 ESSAY ELEVEN Cheurprakobkit found that Hispanics had a more positive view of police in comparison to African Americans and Spanish speaking Hispanics were more cooperative and viewed the police more positively than did English speaking Hispanics” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, p. 381). With socioeconomic status, “persons from a lower socioeconomic background are less likely to view police positively. Minorities in poor urban neighborhoods have some of the lowest approval ratings of police. The reason for these perceptions include perceived injustice, lack of concern and attention on the part of the police, and ineffectiveness in comparison to level of services provided to more wealthy neighborhoods” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, p. 382). With contacts with police, “research indicates that positive contacts have a stronger influence than negative contacts. Reisig and Chandek found that citizens’ satisfaction is based on their expectation. If police actions meet their expectations, they are satisfied, but if police provide an inadequate level of service or exhibit what is perceived as a negative demeanor, citizens become dissatisfied” (Gaines, et. Al, 2022, p. 382). Benefits to police and community are “an expanded outlook on crime control and prevention, encouraging community members to become active problem-solvers, educating the public on public safety issues, decreased crime, identifying the root cause of neighborhood crime, and increased trust in law enforcement” (Tasiopoulous, 2022, par. 4). Good relations that come from the police and community involve “organizational transformation, community partnerships, and shared problem-solving” (Tasiopoulous, 2022, par. 6). The drug war and a shift towards tough law enforcement has affected the public’s perception of police because “Americans do not think that the War on Drugs has succeeded, but they do not want to quit on these efforts. Weak support exists for increasing funding for drug

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