How Children's Literature Portrays Police.

• Position: Brief Article

Police officers and their jobs are more accurately portrayed in children's literature than by popular television shows. A review of 19 books published in the 1990s which had police as a central theme or as main characters found the majority portrayed officers or their jobs in a positive and accurate manner.

Nine of the books focused on law enforcement, while eight portrayed the duties of police officers and two concentrated on the public safety aspect of policing. The books were examined for storylines, with eight weaving information about policing and officers through plots including kids visiting a police station, a stolen bike, a police lecture, a bank robbery/bombing, and investigation of a murder using bones. Eight avoided a storyline, simply explaining a police officer's duties and how the officer spends the day. The remaining three were based on canine units.

"Officers were portrayed as hardworking dedicated officers whose job is to protect and serve," James Hendricks, a criminal justice professor at Ball State University, Muncie, Ind., points out. "All seemed to portray police roles and responsibilities accurately, although some were limited in their coverage of the various...