Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Citizens in China

• Author: Ivan Y. Sun,Lin Liu,Jianhong Liu
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567717717317
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Police Officers’ Attitudes

Toward Citizens in China

Lin Liu

1

, Ivan Y. Sun

1

, and Jianhong Liu

2

Abstract

Although a substantial number of studies have examined public attitudes toward the police, a rel-

atively thin line of research has assessed police attitudes toward the citizenry in China. Using survey

data collected from a sample of approximately 200 Chinese police officers, the current study

examined the effects of police officers’ demographic characteristics, socialization and experience

factors, and role orientations on officers’ attitudes toward citizen virtue, citizen cooperation with

the police, and citizen input in police work. Results indicated that background and experience

characteristics were ineffective in predicting the three aspects of officer attitudes toward citizens.

Crime-fighting and service orientations were found to be related to officers’ attitudes toward the

citizenry. Findings of this study enhance our understanding of police occupational attitudes in China

and provide valuable implications for policy and future research.

Keywords

police attitudes, citizen virtue, citizen cooperation with police, citizen input, Chinese police

The police and citizen relationship is one of the most important elements in modern policing

(Brandl, Frank, Wooldredge, & Watkins, 1997; Carter & Radelet, 2002; Wu, Sun, & Triplett, 2009).

As the most visible symbol of governmental authority (Gabbidon & Greene, 2012), the police have

been subjected to a substantial amount of research. One primary line of such inquiries has considered

the effects of citizen background characteristics, crime and justice experiences, social attitudes, and

neighborhood conditions on attitudes toward the police (MacDonald & Stokes, 2006; Scaglion &

Condon, 1980; Skogan, 1978). A comparatively thinner body of research has analyzed factors

influencing police officers’ attitudes toward the public (Brooks, Piquero, & Cronin, 1993; Z. Chen,

2016; Chu & Sun, 2007; DeJong, 2004; Haarr, 2001; He, Zhao, & Ren, 2005; Ingram & Terrill,

2014; Myhill & Bradford, 2013; Paoline, Myers, & Worden, 2000; Phillips, 2015; I. Sun, 2002; A.

Worden, 1993).

The main purpose of this study is to assess factors that affect officer attitudes toward citizens in

China. Police attitudes toward the citizenry not only influence how officers treat citizens during their

1

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

2

Department of Sociology, University of Macau, Guangdong Sheng, China

Corresponding Author:

Ivan Y. Sun, University of Delaware, 331 Smith Hall, Newark, DE 19702, USA.

Email: isun@udel.edu

International CriminalJustice Review

2018, Vol. 28(1) 45-61

ª2017 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567717717317

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encounters but also impact police–community relations and public trust in and cooperation with the

police (R. Worden, 1996). In China, the recent deadly contact between Beijing police and a young

man, who was detained for soliciting sex and died in police custody, illustrates how distrust of the

police could have a detrimental effect on social stability and police–community relations (T. Chen,

2016, May 24).

Several additional reasons justify the study of officer attitudes toward local residents. First, police

officers’ perceptions of citizens affect their efficacy in gathering information and receiving support

from the public. Various studies have found that individual officers’ attitudes have little influence on

their formal enforcement of the law, but affect the informal aspects of officers’ work, such as the

tone and manner in which they communicate with citizens and their discretionary use of force

(Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng, 2001; Greenberg, 2011). Negative attitudes toward the

public could lower officers’ motivation to contact local residents, resulting in a smaller base of

information resources and weaker capability of criminal prevention and investigation. Indeed, local

residents know much better about their neighborhoods than the police, and police officers have to

rely on their “insider” knowledge and assistance to control crime, arrest suspects, and solve prob-

lems (Reisig, 2007; Skogan, 1999; Tyler, 2006; Wang & Wong, 2012; Wilson & Kelling, 2007).

Second and even more importantly, officers’ attitudes toward the public may influence how

citizens are treated during their interactions with the police. Unfavorab le opinions could cause

officers, for example, to give citations or tickets without sufficient explanation and to treat citizens

in an unfriendly, hostile, or even brutal way (Brandl, Stroshine, & Frank, 2001; Holmes, Reynolds,

Holmes, & Faulkner, 1998; Smith & Holmes, 2014; Wong, 1998). Such treatment would definitely

carve a bad image of police among the public and discourage citizens from cooperating with the

police, leading police–community relations into a malicious circle (Goldsmith, 2005; Murphy &

Cherney, 2011; Weitzer & Brunson, 2009).

Third, how officers perceive citizens could shape how they indoctrinate the modern police

occupational roles of service and problem-solving into their subjective attitudinal orientations. In

the United Kingdom, for example, one dilemma that the police force faces is officers’ reservation to

the promulgated process-based policing policy, a paradigm that stresses the need for officers to

reconnect with the public. Officers tend to view citizens as a problem to be circumvented or over-

come, rather than as partners in a collaborative project to maintain law and order (Reiner, 2010). If

an officer feels resentment toward citizens, he or she might choose to intentionally ignore the roles

of service and order maintenance and heavily endorse law enforcement and crime-fighting instead.

Such inconsistency between individual officers’ role orientations and organizational policing policy

and strategies (e.g., community- and problem-oriented policing) could cause individual officers’

poor work performance and barriers of acquiring rewards, promotions, and peer acknowledgments

(Beehr, Johnson, & Nieva, 1995; Engel & Worden, 2003; Ingram, Paoline, & Terrill, 2013; Sko-

gan & Hartnett, 1997; Wycoff & Skogan, 1994).

Finally, while some studies have investigated police views of the citizenry in Western societies,

such as the United States (DeJong, 2004; Ingram & Terrill, 2014; Phillips, 2015; I. Sun, 2002; A.

Worden, 1993), United Kingdom (Johnston, 2003; Myhill & Bradford, 2013; O’Neill, Marks, &

Singh, 2009), and continental European countries (Ka¨a¨ria¨inen & Sire´n, 2012), this line of research is

virtually nonexistent in China. To date, only a handful of studies have examined Chinese police

occupational outlooks, such as their cynicism, role orientations, and support for community building

(Z. Chen, 2016; Cuvelier, Jia, & Jin, 2015; I. Sun, Cretacci, Wu, & Jin, 2009; I. Sun, Liu, & Farmer,

2016; I. Sun, Sobol, Cretacci, & Phillips, 2010). None of them, however, focused on Chinese police

attitudes toward local residents. Thus, very little is known about the attitudinal propensities on the

citizenry among contemporary Chinese police officers, let alone factors influencing this crucial

aspect of police occupational attitudes. This study filled these knowledge gaps in the existing

literature.

46 International Criminal Justice Review 28(1)