Citation

Hurst YG, Frank J. J. Crim. Justice 2000; 28(3): 189-202.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0047-2352(00)00035-0

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During the past two decades there has been increasing interest in the attitudes of adults toward the police. There has only been limited interest in the attitudes of juveniles, even though they comprise a significant proportion of the population subject to police contact and arrests. The present study, using data collected through a survey administered to a sample of urban and suburban juveniles, examined the determinants of juveniles' attitudes toward the police. The findings generally suggest that the overall attitudes of juveniles are not quite as favorable as those reported previously for adults, that the overall level of support voiced by juveniles varied depending on the focus of the attitude question, that many juveniles selected the 'neutral' response category and failed to voice positive or negative attitudes, and that many of the variables identified as being theoretically relevant in the literature on adult attitudes toward the police (e.g., contact with police, respondents' races and genders, extent of victimization) are also significant predictors of the attitudes of juveniles.