Public Sees Police Not Keeping Peace in Rowdy Neighbourhoods

Newswise — When it comes to maintaining order in troubled neighbourhoods, should the police or the courts be held responsible? It seems that in the battle of public perception, the police are on the losing side, according to a new study by Canadian university researchers.

Associate Professor Jane Sprott of Ryerson University's Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology and the study's lead author, teamed up with Professor Anthony Doob, University of Toronto, to survey Canadians' perceptions of urban neighbourhoods with social problems. The study, which measured public dissatisfaction with the police and the courts, was published in the July issue of the journal Crime & Delinquency.

The criminologists analysed data from a 2004 Statistics Canada survey that asked nearly 18,000 Canadians to rate how effective local police officers were in keeping order in their communities. These duties included enforcing laws, promptly responding to calls, being approachable, providing information to the public about how to reduce crime, ensuring citizen safety and treating people fairly. Next, participants rated the courts on how well they were doing in providing justice quickly, helping the victim, determining guilt and ensuring a fair trial. Finally, respondents assessed how much of a problem social issues were in their neighbourhoods.

The researchers found that negative evaluations of the police were more likely to come from respondents who believed that crime was higher in their neighbourhoods compared to individuals who felt their neighbourhoods were quiet and relatively crime-free.

"This result may be attributed to two factors: it is the police, not the courts, who regularly patrol and engage with communities; secondly, even the police refer to themselves as the "thin blue line" between order and disorder," says Sprott. "In other words, the police may be assigned blame for neighbourhood disorders simply because they, unlike the courts, take professional responsibility for them."

The survey also revealed a connection between perceptions of increasing crime and negative evaluations of the courts. In fact, the public often criticizes criminal sentences for being lenient without actually knowing what the judgments are.

This scenario, according to Sprott, is likely due to political spin-doctoring that goes unchallenged.

"Politicians say they will change laws, demand tougher sentencing and increase police numbers. It's easier to say that to the public, than to evolve the debate and get people thinking about what actually drives social problems, which social policies need to change, and which social programs need to be developed."

The study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Ryerson University is Canada's leader in innovative career-focused education, offering close to 90 PhD, master's, and undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Arts; the Faculty of Communication & Design; the Faculty of Community Services; the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science; and the Ted Rogers School of Management. Ryerson University has graduate and undergraduate enrolment of 26,500 students. With more than 68,000 registrations annually, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is Canada's leading provider of university-based adult education.