Perception vs. Reality: Civilians' Attitudes Toward the Police And Their Reporting of Police Behavior.

Researchers studying the police use of force face the imposing obstacle of precisely measuring incidences of police forceful behavior. Studies utilizing police officers' reports of their own use of force behavior may not accurately measure more serious and illegitimate forms of police forceful behaviors, due to the sensitive and socially undesirable nature of both topics. Studies that utilize observational data are not only expensive and difficult to carry out, but they also run the risk of measuring behaviors adapted to the presence of an observer. Finally, civilian reports of police officers' behaviors also face significant perception biases, most notably, the possibility that civilians' attitudes toward the police (and toward the criminal justice system in general) may influence the accuracy of their reporting. This paper focuses this final phenomenon. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: Community Survey (Earls 1997), this study examines how civilians' attitudes toward the police, and their levels of legal cynicism in general, may shape their reports of police officers' use of excessive force. It is expected that those civilians who report more negative attitudes toward the police, and who report higher levels of legal cynicism in general, will be more likely to report higher levels of police officers' use of excessive force in their neighborhoods. Implications of these findings for the study of police behavior will be discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]