Policing minority communities : how perception of engagement and level of "awareness" influence officer attitudes toward practice

Toby Miles-Johnson, Suzanna Fay, Susann Wiedlitzka

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the 21st century, policing of all citizens requires officers to have an increased awareness of minority communities. Yet in the wake of public complaints and mass demonstrations regarding police misconduct, it is clear that police bias toward minority communities often negatively influences engagement. To better understand police awareness of minority communities and how officers’ levels of awareness and perceptions of policing influence their perceptions of engagement, data were collected from police recruits and protective service officers (N = 1585) training at one of the largest police academies in Australia. The results show significant differences in awareness levels and perceptions of engagement of police recruits and protective service officers toward members of minority communities, as well as the factors influencing awareness during police–citizen engagement. These include the police recruit’s and protective service officer’s gender and sexuality, the frequency of socialization they have with diverse people, as well as the type of social interaction experienced. The results from this study offer suggestions to increase officers’ levels of awareness of minority communities, and how this may improve on-the-job performance overtime.
Original languageEnglish
Article number70
Number of pages23
JournalSocial Sciences
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Policing minority communities : how perception of engagement and level of "awareness" influence officer attitudes toward practice'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this