Arabella Kyprianides, Julia A. Yesberg, Jenna Milani, Ben Bradford, Paul Quinton and Oliver Clark–Darby
The range of tactical force options available to police is increasing, while public debate about police use of force is never far from the headlines. This paper aims to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
The range of tactical force options available to police is increasing, while public debate about police use of force is never far from the headlines. This paper aims to examine what factors shape how people accept police use of force.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use two online experiments to test whether different force options affected judgments about the acceptability of police action and to explore the role of trust and legitimacy in people's judgments.
Findings
The authors found across both studies that respondents judged scenarios involving a weapon (baton, CS spray, Taser) as less acceptable compared to scenarios that did not (talking down, handcuffs), but they did not draw much distinction between the specific weapon used. In study 1, exposure to different police tactics had no effect on trust and legitimacy. In study 2, prior perceptions of trust were strong predictors of acceptability judgments.
Originality/value
There is a comparative paucity of British-based empirical research examining public attitudes toward different use of force resolutions by police. In this paper, the authors explore how use of force affects people's views of police at a time in which the nature and scope of force applications, how these are understood and indeed the basic enterprise of policing itself is being reconsidered and renegotiated.
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Ben Bradford, Jenna Milani and Jonathan Jackson
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which police legitimacy and social identity explain variation in public acceptance of police use of force. The authors assess…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which police legitimacy and social identity explain variation in public acceptance of police use of force. The authors assess whether there is an association between legitimacy and public acceptance of apparently illegal or unethical police action; and the extent to which identification with a particular social group predicts judgments of police behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws upon cross-sectional data from a 2015 survey of a representative sample of adults in England and Wales. Structural equation modeling is used to model conditional correlations between latent constructs.
Findings
There are two main findings. First, identifying more strongly with a social group that the police may be seen to represent was consistently associated with greater acceptance of police use of force, whether or not that force seemed to be justified. Second, beliefs about the legitimacy of the police were also associated with acceptance, but primarily only in relation to the use of force in situations where it appeared prima facie justifiable.
Social implications
Results suggest one possible set of reasons why police retain public support in the face of scandals concerning excessive use of force.
Originality/value
This is one of only very few studies that have used survey data to explore lay justifications for police use of force.
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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the potential of material‐semiotic ontology to the field of anti‐consumption research.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the potential of material‐semiotic ontology to the field of anti‐consumption research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper's approach is multi‐site ethnography, following a consumer object, the Omlet Eglu, to trace a field of study within the practices and processes of urban stock‐keeping.
Findings
It was found that the Omlet Eglu was produced as an ambivalent actor within the practices of urban stock‐keeping, allowing an analysis of multiple aspects of consumption/anti‐consumption and consumer resistance/domination that challenges those dualisms as organizing constructs.
Practical implications
The paper fdds to knowledge about the complex constructions of the meaning of egg consumption by consumers. This has the potential to inform retailers and farm producers, as well as organizations that provide goods and services to home food producers.
Originality/value
The paper provides a novel ontological approach to anti‐consumption that addresses current concerns in this field over its underpinning categorizations and over‐reliance upon neo‐liberal models of consumer agency.
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Ben Kerrane and Margaret K. Hogg
The purpose of this paper is to examine children's consumption experiences within families in order to investigate the role that different family environments play in the consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine children's consumption experiences within families in order to investigate the role that different family environments play in the consumer socialisation of children.
Design/methodology/approach
Key consumer socialisation literature is reviewed and family communication patterns and parental socialisation style studies are introduced. Such studies argue for the homogenous and shared nature of the family environment for children. A three‐stage qualitative study of six families is reported, incorporating existential phenomenological interviews. The voices of children and their parents are captured, and the transcribed interview texts are analyzed on two levels (within and across family cases) using a hermeneutical process.
Findings
The findings of the study point towards the differential treatment of children within the family environment by both parents and siblings. It is proposed that children inhabit a unique position, or micro‐environment, within their family setting. Consumer micro‐environments are introduced; these have important implications in terms of children's consumption behaviour and, more importantly, their consumer socialisation process within the family setting.
Research limitations/implications
Consumer micro‐environments have potentially important implications in any re‐evaluation of the literature on consumer socialisation, and it is suggested that children may not have equal access to socialisation advice and support offered by family members. A limited number of families and family types are recruited in this exploratory study, and scope exists to explore family micro‐environments across a greater variety of family forms.
Originality/value
A series of micro‐environments, which have implications for the consumer socialisation of children, will be developed on a theoretical level. Existing consumer research views the family environment in homogenous terms, with suggestions that children are socialised by their parents in a similar manner (inhabiting a shared family environment). These findings problematise such a view and also offer insights into the role played by siblings in the consumer socialisation process.
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The purpose of this paper is to test theories of organizational justice in the context of a police agency.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test theories of organizational justice in the context of a police agency.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to analyze data from a survey of officers in a police force in England.
Findings
The SEM showed that organizational justice was associated with positive attitudes towards serving members of the public. This relationship was mediated by commitment to elements of community policing and, for community police officers, by general satisfaction with the organization.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that police managers committed to implementing process‐based policing policies may need to ensure their organizations also implement internal policies and practices that are procedurally fair.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to apply the well established literature on organizational justice to the context of policing, and the first to examine the impact of organizational justice on alignment with community policing and the service model.
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Sebastian Roché and Guillaume Roux
Procedural justice (PJ) during police-citizen interactions has often been portrayed as a “silver bullet” to good policing, as it could function as a means to gain trust, voluntary…
Abstract
Purpose
Procedural justice (PJ) during police-citizen interactions has often been portrayed as a “silver bullet” to good policing, as it could function as a means to gain trust, voluntary obedience and public cooperation. PJ research is based on the assumption that there exists “true fairness.” However, it is still unclear what people actually mean when they evaluate the police as “fair” in surveys. By focusing the analysis to underexplored aspects of PJ, namely, the identity and political antecedents of the attribution of procedural fairness, the authors highlight the social and ideological reasons that influence people’s perceptions of police fairness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to explain the attribution of fairness of police, the study comprises a range of independent variables organized into five overarching domains: prior experience with police, victimization, socioeconomic status and (disadvantaged) context of residence, ethnicity and political attitudes and punitive values. The analysis is based on a representative sample of France, as well as a booster sample of a deprived, urban province (Seine-Saint-Denis) in order to better incorporate ethnic effects into the model (March 2011; n=1.498, 18+).
Findings
The present study finds support for the notion that aggressive policing policies (police-initiated contacts, e.g. identification checks, road stops) negatively impacts attributions of fairness to police. In addition, the findings show that attributions of fairness are not only interactional (i.e. related to what police do in any given situation) or related to individual cognitive phenomena, but for the most part pertain to broader social and political explanations. Political and ethnic cleavages are the key to understanding how police are judged by the public. The findings therefore question the nature of what is actually measured when fairness is attributed to police, finding that more punitive and conservative respondents tend to assess the police as fair. The authors find that the attribution of fairness seems to correspond to upholding the existing social order.
Research limitations/implications
This study has limitations inherent to any cross-sectional survey and the findings pertain only to a single country (France). Furthermore, the authors did not analyze all possible confounding variables to perceived fairness.
Social implications
The findings pose a practical problem for police and government to implement, as the authors ultimately find that there is no single recipe, or “silver bullet,” for being deemed fair across all social, ethnic and political groups – and, of course, the expectations of one group might conflict with those of another.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates that existing theory needs to better incorporate those explanations of fairness which extend beyond interactional processes with police, and refer instead to the social and political cleavages in society.
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Sudan’s challenges are deeply rooted in a complex web of societal, political, and health-related issues. The nation is currently experiencing a challenging period that is…
Abstract
Sudan’s challenges are deeply rooted in a complex web of societal, political, and health-related issues. The nation is currently experiencing a challenging period that is impacting various aspects of human life, including the healthcare system for the youth, who are significantly impacted by this crisis that has persisted for a decade. Sudan, located in northeastern Africa, is an Arab nation and a member of the Greater Horn of Africa, along with Ethiopia and South Sudan. Despite its strategic location near the Nile River – a hub for global oil trade and other merchandise – it does not possess any military equipment. Its history, unfortunately, is marked by prolonged social conflicts. These conflicts have significantly affected essential infrastructures, social services, and the overall well-being of the population. We examine the conflict through humanitarian and socio-economic factors affecting Sudan and its people. This chapter explores the role of global economic forces and international relations in Sudan’s ability to address these challenges. Secondly, we explore the social structures, power dynamics, and interdependencies, examining how institutions and societal functions hinder comprehensive issue resolution through structural functionalism. Lastly, we will analyze the legal recognition and protection as foundational elements for human rights and assess the acknowledgment of rights, its absence influences the endurance of multifaceted challenges like health care and educational system by the Right to have Rights.