{"title":"Reform, defund or do not touch? Exploring factors affecting the demand for organizational change in law enforcement","authors":"Ahmet Guler , Ismail Onat","doi":"10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2024.102200","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The present study examined the corelates of individuals` varying attitudes towards reforming American law enforcement. Building on previous research, we hypothesized that such demand among American adults may result from their fear of police brutality, the quality of relationship between the police and minorities, the role of media news, political views, and other demographic factors. Three concepts (i.e., reforming the police, defunding the police, or maintaining the status quo) were employed to measure reform attitudes. Analyses of survey data indicated that the three proposals do not have identical predictors. While fear of police brutality and political views were significant predictors of all three attitudes across the models, with opposing effects on maintaining the status quo, belonging to a minority group and exposure to news media had no significant effect on support for defunding or reforming the police. The results of the study were discussed, and its policy implications were considered.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48272,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Criminal Justice","volume":"93 ","pages":"Article 102200"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Criminal Justice","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235224000497","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The present study examined the corelates of individuals` varying attitudes towards reforming American law enforcement. Building on previous research, we hypothesized that such demand among American adults may result from their fear of police brutality, the quality of relationship between the police and minorities, the role of media news, political views, and other demographic factors. Three concepts (i.e., reforming the police, defunding the police, or maintaining the status quo) were employed to measure reform attitudes. Analyses of survey data indicated that the three proposals do not have identical predictors. While fear of police brutality and political views were significant predictors of all three attitudes across the models, with opposing effects on maintaining the status quo, belonging to a minority group and exposure to news media had no significant effect on support for defunding or reforming the police. The results of the study were discussed, and its policy implications were considered.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Criminal Justice is an international journal intended to fill the present need for the dissemination of new information, ideas and methods, to both practitioners and academicians in the criminal justice area. The Journal is concerned with all aspects of the criminal justice system in terms of their relationships to each other. Although materials are presented relating to crime and the individual elements of the criminal justice system, the emphasis of the Journal is to tie together the functioning of these elements and to illustrate the effects of their interactions. Articles that reflect the application of new disciplines or analytical methodologies to the problems of criminal justice are of special interest.
Since the purpose of the Journal is to provide a forum for the dissemination of new ideas, new information, and the application of new methods to the problems and functions of the criminal justice system, the Journal emphasizes innovation and creative thought of the highest quality.