SOC 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Community Policing, Visible Minority, Social Environment

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1500
• Professor: Stephanie Howells

Document Summary

Attitudes toward police: citizen"s opinions taken into account, policing is viewed as customer service, attitudes gauge how well police are doing. Age and race are key variables: older police officers doing a good job, younger doing a bad job (this is how it is perceived), and blacks are less favourable than whites and more likely to be treated unfairly. Hispanics in us similar to blacks but to a lesser extent. Other sociodemographic variables are ambiguous (gender, socioeconomic status, education level, marital status). Juvenile"s attitudes to police: negative views by young people, visible minorities, those perceiving neighbourhoods as high in crime and those who are victims of crime. Early contact with police also has a lasting effect on relationships with agencies of social control and long-term attitudes and behaviours. Social environment, delinquent subcultures and police contact is equally important in explaining perceptions. Minority youth have a greater negative view of police than white youth.