The attitudes of juveniles toward the police

Abstract

The relationship between race and attitudes toward the police has been the subject of numerous studies since the, 1960s. Unfortunately, only a limited number of studies have addressed this relationship as it applies to juveniles. The present study, using survey responses from 852 public high school students in a large metropolitan area, compares the attitudes of black and white teenagers. We find that the overall attitudes of black and white juveniles toward police performance are significantly different from one another, while their evaluations of officer performance during personal encounters are more similar.