Citation

Rusinko WT, Johnson KW, Hornung CA. J. Crim. Justice 1978; 6(1): 53-67.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0047-2352(78)90039-9

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The central focus of this study was to examine types of contact between adolescents and police as determinants of attitudes toward these authority figures. Three value or group expressive determinants – race, deviance, and parental defiance – were used as control variables to specify conditions under which the importance of actual contact with police is enhanced or diminished. Positive contact with police was found to be predictive of positive attitudes and negative contact was predictive of negative attitudes toward police. Further investigation revealed that the relationship between positive contact and positive attitudes toward police became significantly stronger among youths who had experienced negative encounters with police, as well as among those who reported being frequently involved in deviance, and among those who had been defiant of parental authority. The effects of negative contact with police were most significant among whites, those who report infrequent deviant behavior, and those youths who had experienced little or no positive contact with police.