Steven G. Brandl, James Frank, John Wooldredge and R. Cory Watkins
Since the 1960s, many studies have analyzed citizens’ attitudes toward the police. These studies have used a variety of items to measure citizens’ attitudes ( items which vary in…
Abstract
Since the 1960s, many studies have analyzed citizens’ attitudes toward the police. These studies have used a variety of items to measure citizens’ attitudes ( items which vary in their referent (e.g. “the police,” “the police in the neighborhood”) and in their focus (e.g. assessments of overall police performance, assessments of police performance in dealing with specific conditions). Using data obtained through a survey of 298 residents of a midwestern city, compares responses to various questions designed to measure attitudes toward the police. The results show that regardless of the referent or focus, there are few differences in response patterns across questions. Discusses the implications of these findings.
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James Frank, Steven G. Brandl and R. Cory Watkins
States that proponents of community policing contend that implementation of this strategy should substantially change the nature of police work. Unfortunately, there remains only…
Abstract
States that proponents of community policing contend that implementation of this strategy should substantially change the nature of police work. Unfortunately, there remains only limited knowledge about what community policing officers actually do, and in fact, many researchers suggest that community policing is merely a new name for traditional forms of policing. Using observational data collected in a medium sized municipal police department, examines the work of community officers and compares it to the work of traditional “beat” officers. Discusses the activities of community officers in light of existing literature which has examined the workload of police officers.
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Steven Chermak, Edmund McGarrell and Jeff Gruenewald
The purpose of this paper is to examine how celebrated cases affect attitudes toward police, controlling for key demographic, police contact, and neighborhood contextual variables.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how celebrated cases affect attitudes toward police, controlling for key demographic, police contact, and neighborhood contextual variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents two waves of public opinion data measuring attitudes toward police, police services, police harassment, and officer guilt before and after a celebrated police misconduct trial. Data were collected by telephone from residents living in three areas.
Findings
The findings in the paper suggest that news consumption of this celebrated case had no significant effects on general attitudes toward police, police services, and concerns about police harassment. Media coverage, however, did effect citizen evaluation of the guilt of the officers involved in the case. The more a citizen read a newspaper or read about the case, the more likely she was to think that the officers were guilty. Concern about crime in the neighborhood was an important predictor of attitudes toward the police, and race effects were much more pronounced after media coverage of the case.
Research limitations/implications
This paper highlights the need to examine more closely media coverage of celebrated cases and the effects of such high profile cases. In addition, it illustrates that public opinion research must be careful of contextual variables when conducting a study at a single point in time.
Practical implications
These findings also have critical implications for law enforcement agencies. The findings highlight the importance of police departments being prepared to respond to crisis events.
Originality/value
This paper is valuable to scholars and police practitioners because of its close examination of the effects of a celebrated case on various measures of public opinion of the police. Although there have many studies examining this general topic, research has ignored the impact of media coverage generally and coverage of high profile incidents.
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The purpose of this paper is to review the reasons underlying the slow rate of progress towards developing a comprehensive policy underpinning for adult safeguarding in England…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the reasons underlying the slow rate of progress towards developing a comprehensive policy underpinning for adult safeguarding in England and proposes long-term solutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses a model of policy change to argue that adult safeguarding has been over-reliant on case histories to define its policy problems and influence its politics, while making insufficient progress on data collection and analysis. It uses examples from the parallel discipline of public health to explore four challenges, or “problems”, relevant to the further development of the knowledge base underpinning adult safeguarding policy.
Findings
Four recommendations emerge for closing the adult safeguarding “knowledge gap”, including the development of a national research strategy for adult safeguarding. In a fifth recommendation the paper also proposes a clearer recognition of the contribution that local public health professionals can make to local adult safeguarding policy making and programme development.
Practical implications
The first four recommendations of this paper would serve as the basis for developing a national research strategy for adult safeguarding. The fifth would strengthen the contribution of local public health departments to safeguarding adults boards.
Originality/value
The author is unaware of the existence of any other review of the limitations of the adult safeguarding knowledge base as a foundation for policy making, or which proposes strategic solutions. The work is valuable for its practical proposals.
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To re‐test the hypothesis that that the public in Japan have a higher confidence in the police than their counterparts in the USA.
Abstract
Purpose
To re‐test the hypothesis that that the public in Japan have a higher confidence in the police than their counterparts in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from the national representative samples were analyzed to compare the levels of confidence in the police between the USA and Japan. The new analysis addressed four methodological limitations found in the previous study.
Findings
With more updated data and more appropriate method, the results confirmed the previous study that the US public have a significantly higher confidence in the police than the Japanese public.
Originality/value
Many qualitative studies have found or argued that the public in Japan have higher confidence in their police than their counterparts in the USA. Only one quantitative analysis has found the opposite. One safeguard against overgeneralization in social science is through replication of the inquiry. The duplication of the previous research findings is important because a strong scientific conclusion is based on the one that examines the theoretically deduced hypothesis at one of the indefinitely large number of times and places that it could be tested, and because duplication is critical in social sciences based on cross‐sectional surveys which are time‐dependent and time‐sensitive.
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Barbara Sims, Michael Hooper and Steven A. Peterson
The essence of community policing is a police‐community partnership for identifying, prioritizing and resolving citizen problems. The nature of community policing demands that…
Abstract
The essence of community policing is a police‐community partnership for identifying, prioritizing and resolving citizen problems. The nature of community policing demands that attention be paid to public expectations of police, and implies listening to citizens and taking their problems seriously. A critical precursor to community policing is identifying citizens’ perceptions of police and their local neighborhoods. This paper presents findings from the Harrisburg Citizen Survey – 1999, in which citizens were asked a series of questions regarding their attitudes toward their local police, their fear of crime, and their perceptions of physical and social incivilities in their neighborhoods. The overall research question for the paper is “Can attitudes toward police be predicted by citizens’ perceptions of physical and social incivilities, their fear of crime, and contact with police, controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, and level of education?”
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Steven Davies, Gareth Reginald Terrence White, Anthony Samuel and Helen Martin
Covid-19 has caused many businesses to rethink their short- and potentially long-term workforce operations. The use of lateral flow serology can provide a clinically convenient…
Abstract
Purpose
Covid-19 has caused many businesses to rethink their short- and potentially long-term workforce operations. The use of lateral flow serology can provide a clinically convenient approach for the assessment of prior infection with Covid-19. However, its widespread adoption in organisations seeking to use it to test for workforce immunity is controversial and confusing. This paper aims to explore the paradoxical dilemmas and dialectics immunity workforce testing creates.
Design/methodology/approach
This study involved capturing the ethnographical participation of a chief executive officer (CEO) dealing with the experience of managing the outcomes of Covid-19 workforce immunity testing. The aim was to take a snapshot in time of the CEO's empirical world, capturing their lived experiences to explore how management actions resulting from Covid-19 immunity testing can played out.
Findings
Providing staff with immunity tests at first glance appears sensible, decent and a caring action to take. Nevertheless, once such knowledge is personalised by employees, they can, through dialectic dialogue, feel disadvantaged and harbour feelings of unfairness. Subsequently, this paper suggests that immunity testing may only serve to raise awareness and deepen the original management dilemma of whether testing is a worthwhile activity.
Originality/value
This paper aims to be amongst the first works to empirically explore the workforce management challenges that arise within small businesses within the service sector following the completion of Covid-19 immunity testing of their staff. It seeks to achieve this via utilising the robust theoretical framework of the paradox theory to examine Covid-19's impact upon small business workforce management thinking and practice.