"The Public and the Police," in Hans-Dieter Schwind, Edwin Kube and
Hans-Heiner Kühne (eds.), Festschrift für Hans-Joachim Schneider. Berlin
and New York: Walter de Gruyter & Co, 1998, 183-196.
The police are the primary representative of the criminal justice system. Surveys in the US
and Britain indicate that between 50 and 65 percent of the adult public comes in contact with
police over the course of a year. Opinion surveys reveal that a majority of people are satisfied
with the job that the police are doing. However, research on the effects of contact with the police
on public attitudes has not been optimistic. Research suggests that, on balance, contacts have
negative consequences. They are somewhat less negative for contacts that are voluntary and
initiated by the public, including calling the police for information or to report an accident. They
are worst for involuntary contacts, ones that are initiated by the police when they stop people
while they are driving or on foot. Victims who contact the police fall somewhere between these
two poles, but are on the unhappy side. With some exceptions, the more sustained contact
people later have with the institutions of justice and security, the more unhappy they are about it.
A number of studies in the United States and Great Britain have looked into this, and document
a long list of factors that contribute to public satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the police. This
chapter examines the public's assessments of the police, and how they are formed. It examines
the impact of victimization, actual experiences with the police, and factors such as race, class,
and gender Each of these has an important effect on how people evaluate police performance
and activities. Together, they can provide us with a better understanding of the determinants of
the relationship between citizens and the state.
Hans-Heiner Kühne (eds.), Festschrift für Hans-Joachim Schneider. Berlin
and New York: Walter de Gruyter & Co, 1998, 183-196.
The police are the primary representative of the criminal justice system. Surveys in the US
and Britain indicate that between 50 and 65 percent of the adult public comes in contact with
police over the course of a year. Opinion surveys reveal that a majority of people are satisfied
with the job that the police are doing. However, research on the effects of contact with the police
on public attitudes has not been optimistic. Research suggests that, on balance, contacts have
negative consequences. They are somewhat less negative for contacts that are voluntary and
initiated by the public, including calling the police for information or to report an accident. They
are worst for involuntary contacts, ones that are initiated by the police when they stop people
while they are driving or on foot. Victims who contact the police fall somewhere between these
two poles, but are on the unhappy side. With some exceptions, the more sustained contact
people later have with the institutions of justice and security, the more unhappy they are about it.
A number of studies in the United States and Great Britain have looked into this, and document
a long list of factors that contribute to public satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the police. This
chapter examines the public's assessments of the police, and how they are formed. It examines
the impact of victimization, actual experiences with the police, and factors such as race, class,
and gender Each of these has an important effect on how people evaluate police performance
and activities. Together, they can provide us with a better understanding of the determinants of
the relationship between citizens and the state.
Police-Public Encounters
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