Juvenile Attitudes Toward the Police

• Author: Yolander G. Hurst
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016807300141
• Published date: 01 June 2007
• Date: 01 June 2007
• Subject Matter: Articles

Juvenile Attitudes Toward the Police

An Examination of Rural Youth

Yolander G. Hurst

Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio

The past three decades have seen an increase in research on the attitudes of juveniles toward

the police. This research suggests that juveniles are generally less positive in their attitudes

toward the police than are adults. However, most research on juvenile attitudes has focused on

youth residing in metropolitan areas, ignoring the role of geographical location in explaining

perceptions. Using survey data, the present study examined the attitudes of rural youth toward

the police. The findings suggest that although the level of support among rural teenagers did

not mirror the levels found within the adult literature, rural teenagers may be more supportive

of the police than their metropolitan counterparts. Furthermore, whereas White teenagers were

generally more positive in their perception of the police than were Black teenagers, race was

not a significant predictor of attitudes toward the police. Still, many of the variables identified

as theoretically relevant in the existing literature were significant predictors of the attitudes of

juveniles residing in rural areas.

Keywords: juveniles; attitudes; police; rural youth

Within recent years, researchers have explored the attitudes of juveniles toward the

police. This line of research, in part, is driven by the awareness that juveniles have a

high level of contact with the police, which may potentially affect attitudes toward police

as well as willingness to engage in behaviors supportive of the police. In general, research

suggests that support for the police is not widespread among juveniles and is much lower

for juveniles than for adults. Most research on juvenile attitudes toward the police has,

unfortunately, focused on teenagers residing in metropolitan communities. The purpose of

this study is to examine the attitudes of rural youth toward the police.

The urban setting has largely been the focal point of most criminal justice research.

Because of this urban emphasis, some of the least understood topics in criminal justice and

criminology are issues related to the impact of a rural setting on crime and justice. Weisheit

and Wells (1996) contend that because the rural setting has been ignored by researchers,pol-

icy makers, and the media, there is the belief that the concept “rural” is no longer relevant.

The trend in social science research is to view the city as the location “where the action is”

and to view rural areas as “curious and less informative deviations.” Indeed, a misconcep-

tion has been to study urban areas and assume that rural areas are similar. These types of

generalizations ignore the distinctiveness of the rural environment.

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Criminal Justice Review

Volume 32 Number 2

June 2007 121-141

© 2007 Georgia State University

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Author’s Note: The author would like to thank Dr. Dennis Long as well as the peer reviewers for their helpful

comments.

Decker (1979) identifies important reasons for expanding criminal justice research to

include rural areas. First, to produce more comprehensive research, a broader range of situa-

tions and occurrences must be included. Second, expanding criminal justice research to

include the rural environment provides a better opportunity to explore questions of validity in

research. Moreover, the rural environment is different from the urban environment in ways

that could affect policing, crime, and public policy (Weisheit, Wells, & Falcone, 1995).

Following this line of reasoning, the distinct characteristics of the rural setting also may

affect how one sees the police. Research suggests that similar to their metropolitan counter-

parts, adults residing in rural areas generally hold positive attitudes toward the police (see

Baird-Olson, 2000). Yet, little is known about the attitudes of juveniles residing in rural areas

concerning the police. Although variables such as gender, race, and type of police contact all

have been explored as possible explanations for less favorable attitudes among teenagers,

research has not adequately addressed the role of geographical location in explaining atti-

tudes toward the police.

Given the existing research, this study seeks to expand the literature by addressing two

research questions. First, what is the overall level of support for the police among rural

teenagers? Second, do variables commonly found to be statistically significant determi-

nants of metropolitan youths, attitudes also explain the attitudes of rural youth?

Conceptual Framework for Analysis

Reisig and Parks (2000) identify three conceptual models that explain variables related to

attitudes toward the police. The first, described as an experience with the police model, sug-

gests that cumulative experiences with the police shape one’s view of them. Particularly, the

type of contact (citizen vs. police initiated) and perceived treatment by the police during

these contacts should affect attitudes. Reisig and Parks assert that much of the attitudinal

research to date has been guided by this conceptual model.

The second model links attitudes toward the police to perceptions of the quality of life

in the community. The underlying premise behind this model is that citizens often hold the

police accountable for the problems in their neighborhoods. Therefore, perceived prob-

lems with neighborhood incivility, crime, and fear of crime have an effect on how one

views the police.

Third, the neighborhood context model associates attitudes toward the police with the

social conditions within a community. Similar to the ecological perspective,this macrolevel

model suggests that residents in areas with high concentrations of crime and/or poverty are

more likely to negatively assess the police.

Sampson (1986) argues that theoretical models that assume that determinants of crime

apply across geographical location may be misguided. In his study on the effects of urban-

ization and neighborhood characteristics on victimization, Sampson found that whereas

poverty was correlated to criminal victimization in urban areas, housing density explained

victimization in suburban and rural areas.

Following Sampson’s (1986) logic, although several variables have been theoretically

linked to attitudes toward the police, these variables have largely been explored in urban areas.

Therefore, whether these factors hold true in rural environments is less clear. For example,

122 Criminal Justice Review