3.
Police officers' and citizens' attitudes toward the provision of safety/security in local communities in Slovenia : doctoral dissertationMaja Modic, 2013, doktorska disertacija
Opis: Main purpose of the dissertation is to compare police officers’ and citizens’ attitudes toward various aspects of local safety provision, with the emphasis on community policing, which is currently the main philosophy of policing in Slovenia. Data for the study comes from a survey administred to a sample of police officers and citizens to assess their attitudes on a broad range of issues regarding the provision of safety on the local level as related to Slovene police in general, police effectiveness in various activities, legality of police work and citizens’ willingness to cooperate with the police among others.
Within the comparison between citizens’ and police officers’ attitudes, areas of the highest and the lowest degree of concordance between attitudes were identified and examined. Attitudes of police officers and citizens were found to be most dissimilar regarding legality of police work, effectiveness in protecting life, personal safety and property, general perceptions of police and effectiveness in community policing.
Overall level of concordance between attitudes of both groups was found to be low.
The foci of our further analysis were the factors which influence citizens’ and police officers’ attitudes toward police effectiveness in community policing. Effects of gender, age, education, fear of crime and residency characteristics on citizens’ attitudes were examined, and effects of age, education, participatory management, organizational support, job satisfaction and community support on police officers’ attitudes were examined.
Results of regression analysis showed that police visibility, trust in the government, age, fear of crime and length of residency affect citizens’ attitudes toward police effectiveness in community policing, however these variables account only for 30.1 percent of the variation in citizens' attitudes toward community policing. Police officers’ attitudes toward police effectiveness in community policing are affected by age, education, organizational support, job satisfaction and community support. These variables were found to account only for 28.7 percent of the variation in police officers' attitudes toward community policing. Majority of the variation in both groups’ attitudes toward community policing thus remains unexplained.
Suggestions for further research and policy implication are provided, focused on inclusion of additional variables into model of police officers’ attitudes and model of citizens’ attitudes. Variables found to affect citizens of both groups toward police effectiveness in community policing by the findings of present research should be taken into consideration by police administrators and local safety policy makers.
Ključne besede: police officers’ attitudes, citizens’ attitudes, local safety provision, community policing, police-community relations, police-community cooperation, community policing officer, local safety council
Objavljeno v DKUM: 15.04.2013; Ogledov: 3418; Prenosov: 312
Celotno besedilo (1,42 MB)