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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.04.014 Byline: Ivan Y. Sun (a), Doris C. Chu (b) Abstract: This study examined Taiwanese female and male police officers' perceptions of handling domestic violence. Specifically, it assessed officers' attitudes toward whether female officers, male officers, or a combination of female and male officers are more suited for handling cases of battered women, offenders, and domestic violence overall. Survey data were collected from 96 female and 156 male officers from two police departments in Taiwan. Frequency distributions showed that a combination of male and female officers were most preferred by officers for handling abused women, offenders, and domestic violence overall. Regression analysis found that female officers were significantly more likely than male officers to favor a combination of male and female officers over female officers alone for handling battered women. Female officers were found to be more likely than male officers to favor male over female officers and a combination of male and female officers for handling offenders. Police supervisors' attitudes toward domestic violence also influenced officers' attitudes toward who is more suited for handling offenders. Implications for future research and policy are discussed. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States (b) Department of Criminology, Sociology, and Geography, Arkansas State University, P.O. Box 2410, State University, AR 72467, United States Article Note: (footnote) [star] This paper was accepted under the Editorship of Kent Joscelyn.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.04.037 Byline: Ivan Y. Sun (a), James J. Sobol (b), Michael Cretacci (b), Scott W. Phillips (b) Abstract: While police attitudes and behaviors have been the subject of a large number of studies conducted since the 1960s, very few studies had assessed Chinese police officers' work-related attitudes and compared them with those of the U.S. police cadets. Using survey data collected from 263 Chinese and American police cadets, the research empirically tested whether Chinese and American police cadet attitudes differed across four attitudinal dimensions: aggressive patrol, order maintenance, legal restrictions, and distrust of citizens. Bivariate and multivariate results showed that Chinese cadets displayed occupational outlooks that distinguished them from their American counterparts. Chinese cadets supported aggressive patrol and were more distrustful of citizens than their American counterparts. American cadets were more favorable of order maintenance activities and more accepting of legal restrictions compared with Chinese cadets. Implications for future research and policy are discussed. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States (b) Criminal Justice Department, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY 14222, United States Article Note: (footnote) [star] This paper was accepted under the Editorship of Kent Joscelyn.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.07.011 Byline: Margarita Poteyeva, Ivan Y. Sun Abstract: Research on attitudinal differences between female and male police officers has burgeoned since the 1980s, producing a rich albeit at times contradictory legacy. Focusing on quantitative studies published after 1990, this current study reviewed empirical results regarding attitudinal differences between female and male police officers. A comprehensive search of the literature yielded thirty-three articles where gender was used either as an independent or control variable in multivariate regression analysis. A general finding was that officer gender has only a weak effect on officers' attitudes toward community policing, the community and neighborhood residents, job satisfaction, and domestic violence. There was some limited evidence showing that male and female officers differ in their attitudes toward the police role and stress. The limitations of this research are pointed out, and the directions for future research are identified. Author Affiliation: Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States

This study examined binge drinking, drinking-driving, and other negative behaviors among college students. Specifically, this study tested the explanatory power of three criminological theories: self-control, social bonds, and routine activities. Data used in this research were collected from a survey of 558 students in a state university. Findings indicated that college students with low self-control were significantly more likely to engage in binge drinking, drinking-driving, and negative behaviors. Students who rarely participated in university-organized events or frequently attended parties were more likely to have problems of binge drinking, drinking-driving, and negative behaviors. Several control variables, such as gender and location of residence, were also predictive of alcohol-related problems among college students. Implications for future research are discussed.

While a considerable number of studies had been conducted to examine the effects of various variables on police behavior, very few studies had simultaneously analyzed factors that accounted both for police coercive and noncoercive behaviors. Equally limited is the research on the influences of officer characteristics and neighborhood context on police behavior controlling for all individual situational factors. Using observational and survey data collected by a large-scale project and hierarchical linear modeling techniques, this study assessed the effects of situational, officer, and neighborhood variables on police coercive and noncoercive actions, as well as the cross-level effects between these variables. Findings showed that situational characteristics played a strong role in determining officer coercive behavior, but not noncoercive activities. Similarly, officer-level predictors explained better officers' variation in coercive behavior than noncoercive behavior. Meanwhile, socially disadvantaged neighborhoods were more prone to receive coercive activities than were other neighborhoods. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

This research assessed whether female officers respond to domestic violence differently from male officers. Though many studies had analyzed police responses to domestic violence since the 1980s, very few had empirically examined different types of actions, especially noncoercive actions, employed by women and men in handling domestic violence. Using data collected by a large-scale observational project, this research analyzed police supportive and control actions toward citizens involved in domestic violence. Findings showed that female officers were more likely than male officers to provide support to citizens involved in domestic violence. Female and male officers, however, did not differ significantly in exercising control actions toward citizens. Regression results from separate models for female and male officers revealed that some of the variables are predictive of police actions for one gender but not the other. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

The relationship between the armed forces and violent-crime rates in a cross-national context despite of the variety of predicators that are present is discussed. Results point out that the size of the military and the presence of conscription have an important relationship to homicide rates.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.09.001 Byline: Ivan Y. Sun, Yuning Wu Keywords: Citizen perception of courts; Public opinion; Racial differences; Gender differences; Court experience Abstract: This study examined the influences of race, gender, and recent court experience on citizens' perceptions of the courts in their communities. Using national survey data collected in 2000, this research assessed variation in perceptions of the courts along four dimensions: differential treatment, fair procedure and outcome, concern and respect, and overall evaluation. The results showed that racial minorities, including Blacks and Latinos, were more likely than Whites to have negative attitudes toward the courts. While race is generally a better predictor than gender, the interaction between gender and race is important in understanding citizen's perceptions of the courts. Citizens who have recent personal contact with the courts tend to rate the courts less favorable than those who have no recent contact. Citizens' opinions of the police and equal opportunity are also significantly related to their perceptions of the courts. Implications for policy and future research are discussed. Author Affiliation: Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, United States

A handful of researchers examined the activities of law enforcement in rural areas. Much of the research on rural policing activities involved well-constructed ethnographic methodologies including observational studies, case studies, and in-depth interviews. These studies demonstrated that rural police officers laced a number of problems that their urban counterparts did not. Building on this past research, this article reports the results of a content analysis of law enforcement activity in one rural community over a two-year timeframe. In all, 948 police calls as described in one community's published media crime reports were analyzed. Results of the analysis suggested that rural policing requires officers who are trained as generalists and able to respond to an assortment of departmental and social/community needs. Implications are provided.

This study examined the behavioral differences between Black and White police officers in handling interpersonal conflicts. Observational and survey data from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods and the 1990 census data were used. Actions taken by officers are examined along two behavioral dimensions: coercion and support. Findings show that Black officers are more coercive than their White counterparts in responding to conflicts. Black officers are also more likely than White officers to conduct supportive activities in predominantly Black neighborhoods, whereas they do not differ in initiating supportive actions in racially diverse communities. Situational characteristics play a strong role in determining police actions during conflict resolution. Implications for policy and future research are discussed. Keywords: police behavior; interpersonal conflicts; Black police officers; coercive actions; supportive actions

This article examines the behavioral differences between police field training officers (FTOs) and non-FTOs in problem-focused efforts and aggressive preventive patrol. The former refers to officer-initiated security checks and attempts to locate citizens, while the latter includes officer-initiated field interrogations and traffic stops. Data used were collected from Indianapolis, Indiana and St. Petersburg, Florida during the summers of 1996 and 1997. Findings show that FTOs, especially those in St. Petersburg, are more proactive than non-FTOs in attempting to locate suspects and witnesses, but they do not differ in the level of proactivity with respect to security checks, field interrogations, and traffic stops. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

In December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in Wuhan, China. Soon after, China became the first country in the world to enforce strict restrictions in an effort to mitigate the spread of the disease. Relying on survey data from 600 Chinese citizens in urban China, this study assessed the extent of citizen compliance and factors related to public compliance to pandemic lockdown and mitigation rules during the initial peak of the pandemic in January, 2020. Using multivariate regressions, we explored the effects of three sets of factors on Chinese citizens’ compliance to pandemic mitigation rules: negative emotions during the pandemic, peer modeling of compliance, and the prevalence of formal social control in the forms of police presence and performance. Our regression analyses suggest that all three mechanisms influence Chinese citizens’ level of compliance with counter-pandemic rules. Nevertheless, the strengths of their effects varied, with peer influence showing the strongest effect on compliance, followed by police presence and fear of contracting COVID-19.

Public’s willingness to assist the police in preventing and fighting crime forms one of the fundamental pillars for implementing effective policing strategies and reforms. Despite widely supported by research conducted around the world, the process-based model of policing has received little research attention in authoritarian settings. Based on survey data collected from Shanghai, China, this study assesses the roles of law and police legitimacy in mediating the relationships between police fairness and effectiveness and willingness to cooperate with the police. We found that Chinese people’s greater senses of police fairness can lead to their higher levels of trust in and willingness to obey the police, but the total effect of police fairness on willingness to cooperate with the police is non-significant. Police effectiveness, meanwhile, directly promotes cooperation with the police. We also found that people who perceived the law as legitimate expressed greater willingness to cooperate with the police. Police legitimacy, compared to law legitimacy, is a more pronounced linking factor connecting police fairness to public cooperation. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of demands from three life domains: society, workplace and family and different resources at the individual, family and supervisor levels on occupational stress and work engagement among Hong Kong police officers. Design/methodology/approach: A survey based on a random sample of 514 male and female police officers was conducted, and multivariate regression was employed to assess the effects of demands and resources on work stress and work engagement. Findings: Family–work conflicts, organizational and operational factors affected work stress and work engagement among police officers. Constructive coping was found to be positively related to work stress and negatively associated with work engagement. Research limitations/implications: Survey data collected from a single Chinese city may not be generalized to officers in other parts of China or Chinese societies with different social and political contexts. Originality/value: The present study filled the knowledge gap about factors influencing police stress and engagement. This study provides insights into how to establish relevant contextual measures to reduce police work stress. This study represents one of the first attempts to use a random sample of police officers for the investigation of police stress in Hong Kong.

A notable limitation among existing studies on immigrant perceptions of the police is the lack of a guiding theoretical framework in data analyses. This article delineates the theoretical perspectives that may explain group differential views on the police between immigrants and non-immigrants, and among immigrant groups. In particular, we formulate a new conceptual framework for classifying these theories. Theories are first organized by the two sources of influence that immigrant attitudes toward the police are subject to: universal factors that tend to shape all residents’ attitudes toward the police, and group-specific factors that apply only to foreign-born individuals. Then within both universal and immigrant-specific factors, there are four subcategories of demographic, experiential, structural, and attitudinal variables. Recommendations for future research are included.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore factors that shape police behavior in juvenile interactions occurring in rural communities. Design/methodology/approach: Using data collected in rural Kentucky through a factorial survey instrument, this study assessed the effects of situational, officer, organizational and community variables on officers’ authoritative and supportive behavior toward juveniles. Findings: Officer background characteristics, such as race, sex, education, and having children, and occupational attitudes, such as rehabilitation and dispositional beliefs, were significantly related to both authoritative and supportive behavior. While organizational variables affected officer supportive actions, they were weakly linked to authoritative behavior. Neighborhood social disorganization was ineffective in predicting both types of police behavior. Originality/value: Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted in the past several decades to examine police behavior, a relatively small number of studies have empirically assessed factors that shape police behavior toward juveniles with an even smaller number assessing juvenile interactions in rural communities. This research provides a comprehensive theoretical explanation of police-juvenile encounters in rural communities which will allow for a more complete understanding of the factors that account for police attitudes and behavior in these interactions.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the influences of social trust and neighborhood cohesion on public trust in the police in China. Design/methodology/approach: This study used survey data collected from roughly 5,600 respondents by the 2012 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS). Multivariate regression was employed to analyze the effects of two forms of social trust, generalized trust and particularized trust, and three types of neighborhood cohesion, neighbor solidary, support and interaction, on public trust in the Chinese police, controlling for personal background characteristics. Findings: Both generalized trust and particularized trust exerted a significant positive effect on trust in the Chinese police. Greater neighborhood cohesion also enhanced public trust in the police. Elderly, women, less educated and people with rural hukouand higher perceived social class were more likely to trust the police. Research limitations/implications: The CGSS data contained only a single item that could be used to measure public trust in the police. Future studies should consider using multiple survey items to reflect Chinese people’s trust from different conceptual dimensions, such as procedural- and outcome-based trust and police legitimacy. The CGSS data also did not contain information on some relevant predictors, such as victimization and fear of crime, personal and vicarious contact experiences with the police, and news and social media usage and exposure. Future studies, if possible, should incorporate these theoretically relevant and empirically proven variables into the analysis. Practical implications: Improving neighborhood cohesion is a clear path to cultivate stronger public trust in the police. Policy-makers and officials must bring the neighborhood-centered approach back to local governance by working closely with police leaders and other private and parochial social institutions to launch programs that can effectively stabilize and strengthen local communities and actively promoting positive interactions and social bonds among residents. Policies and programs aimed at enhancing public trust in the police should target at younger, better educated and urban Chinese who are more likely to be critical of the police. Originality/value: Despite their high relevance, social trust and neighborhood cohesion have received only limited attention in past research on Chinese attitudes toward the police. This study represents one of the first attempts to examine different forms of social trust and neighborhood cohesion on public trust in the police in China.

The research assesses whether police respond differently to victims of domestic and non-domestic interpersonal conflicts. Though many laws and policies have been introduced since the 1980s to enhance police responses to and protection of victims of domestic violence, very few studies have empirically examined police assistance or support toward victims of both domestic and non-domestic conflicts. Using data collected by a large-scale observational project, this research analyzes officer-initiated assistances and police responses to victim requests during conflict resolution. Findings show that police are more likely to provide assistances on their own initiative to victims of domestic violence than victims of non-domestic violence. Police, however, do not differ significantly in their responses to requests made by victims of domestic and non-domestic conflicts. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.