LAW AND ORDER AND THE CAUSES OF CRIME: SOME POLICE AND PUBLIC
01 January 1991
LAW AND ORDER AND THE CAUSES OF CRIME: SOME POLICE AND PUBLIC
PERSPECTIVES
refdoc August=1991
JOURNAL ARTICLE , User Ref = 011019 , Acc Date = 01-Aug-87
S Jones , M Levi , Brunel University Centre for the Study of
Community and Race Relations , University College Cardiff
Department of Social Administration
Howard J, Feb 1987 26(1) pp1-14
Emphasises the limitations of attitudinal surveys as a means of
acquiring objective information about policing using public
opinion polls as an example, but argues that they are a useful
way of monitoring where people lay the blame for the `crime
problem'. Uses data from academic surveys of opinion in samples
of 960 residents and 372 policemen living and working in three
different areas (inner city, small town and semi-rural area) to
explore how public and police attitudes differ on the causes of
crime and the role of policing. They show great disparity in
views on the general safety of the streets with the public
showing higher levels of anxiety and a belief in the breakdown
of law and order which was not necessarily shared by the police.
However, both groups had a socio-pathological view of the causes
of crime and a belief in discipline and deterrence as solutions.
Social factors, apart from unemployment, were felt to be of much
less importance than the perceived results of permissiveness such
as lack of parental discipline. 32 notes and references .
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