Police Officers Treatment Towards Civilians Based on Social Class

Police Officers Treatment Towards Civilians Based on Social Class

Introduction

Bias is an action or an attitude that is unfair, prejudicial, and narrow-minded. Humans are oftentimes making fast conclusions, judgments, and using the power of their positions as it is in their nature. However, in modern society individuals make an effort to abandon bias ideas and reach an equal attitude towards other people. The latter should be the major goal for every society as it frames the humane proper relationships between humans. Workers in the authority structures sometimes possess a substantial amount of prejudice, and police officers have been noticed with using indifferent treatment of humans. Several investigations proved the various policemen’s performances towards civilians of a different social class. Still, the level of income cannot embody the treatment of authorities, especially police officers that primarily are aiming to protect the public.

Further research will analyze secondary data regarding the attitude of police representatives towards civilians. The goals of the paper will focus on finding the major issues triggering such behaviors and identifying possible solutions to the problem. The current work is a literature review that will provide a report of secondary data and will be used as a theoretical base for the ongoing research.

The Attitude of the Public Towards Police

Before studying the reasons for police officers’ various treatment towards citizens, it is essential to investigate the specialties of the public attitude towards them. Various scholarly works prove the mistrust and uncertainty addressed to the police from the population of several countries depending on their levels of income, education, and neighborhoods they inhabit. The work by Weitzer and Tuch (1999, 497) proved the attitude of the citizens towards police depending on their race and class. Black civilians of a middle-class had more favorable perceptions of policemen compared to similar race representatives of a lower class. The study by Boateng (2016, 218) analyzed various neighborhoods with different socioeconomic levels in Ghana and proved people living in higher-income communities with higher education had more trust and confidence in police (Boateng, 2016, 231). The research also identified an average fear of crime to be the factor raising the trust and belief in the police.

Additionally, a study by Oliveira and Murphy (2014, 263) proved on Australian citizens that social class was a stronger determinant of the public’s perceptions of the police. Racial and ethnic minorities were more satisfied with police performance than low-class representatives (Oliveira and Murphy 2014, 269). Thus, the social class of individuals seems to be the major factor embodying the view of law enforcement. Still, such judgments are relevant to the countries located in the West. Chinese communities have a different structure of society and the state. Wu, Sun, and Hu (2016, 179) investigated the police social tension and public perceptions in China. The outcomes of the study proved low-income citizens were more favorable towards police structures than people of higher social status (Wu, Sun, and Hu 2016, 181). Such attitudes can be explained by higher expectations of the service provided by the police from higher class representatives.

Another study tries to clarify the possible factors shaping the opinions about police in China. The authors included various conflict variables and figured that age and political influence were the most significant (Wu and Sun 2009, 171). Thus, the structure of society identifies the attitudes towards police coming from the various public groups. Not always the social class of citizens shapes the attitude to police and their treatment of the citizens.

However, racial minorities generally have a higher level of mistrust towards police as they more frequently face uncontrolled shootings to the civilians, over-policy, and unfair obligation of sanctions. They do not wish to cooperate with law enforcement officers and oftentimes follow various psychological models. According to the study by Duck (2017, 133), the mistrust among African Americans inhabiting poor communities in the U.S. leads to behavior of submissive civility and non-recognition. The latter means overconforming to social norms and refusing to accept the legality of the negative consequences (Duck, 2017, 135). The investigation by Duck discloses the social issue of racism among policemen in the U.S. and explains the specialties of African Americans’ mistrust towards them.

A similar negative attitude to the police department was mentioned by Schuck, Rosenbaum, and Hawkins (2008, 496) among ethnic subgroups in the U.S. compared to White race participants. The other study proved the biased attitud