No abstract

The concept of justice plays an important role in shaping the attitudes of citizens towards criminal justice agencies. Additionally, research indicates that police officers' perceptions of justice within their own organisation can affect their attitudes towards it. Most of the research to date has focused on police officers in Western nations; however, the effects of organisational justice could be universal (i.e. cut across different police agencies and nations) or contextual (i.e. vary between cultures). The current study examined the association between perceptions of two dimensions of organisational justice, distributive (fairness in outcomes) and procedural (fairness in procedures/processes), with job satisfaction and organisational commitment among Indian police officers. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis of survey data collected from 827 officers stationed in the Sonepat and Rohtak districts in the north Indian state of Haryana indicated that perceptions of distributive justice and procedural justice (in terms of promotions and evaluations) had significant positive relationships with both job satisfaction and affective organisational commitment. The findings support the contention that perceptions of organisational justice have important effects on Indian police officers.

Past empirical research has indicated that workplace factors affect the work attitudes of police officers. Police officers ( N = 827) were surveyed in two districts (Sonipat and Rohtak) in the State of Haryana in the Republic of India. Ordinary least squares regression analysis was used to test the effects of job variables (i.e., job autonomy, job variety, training, and supervision) on job attitudes (i.e., job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment). Results indicate that variety, training, and supervision had positive associations with involvement, satisfaction, and commitment. Job autonomy had no association with job satisfaction or organizational commitment and had a negative association with job involvement.

The purpose of this study is to extend White's analysis predicting successful police recruit performance during academy training. Using police personnel data collected on 486 officers hired between 1996 and 2006 by a Midwestern police department, the authors examine characteristics related to academy success as well as active police service. The results show that most demographic and experience variables did not predict academy or active service success. However, White recruits and those scoring higher on the civil service exam consistently performed better on multiple academy outcome measures than their counterparts. In addition, those scoring higher on the overall academy success measure generally received better evaluations from their superiors. The results also show that higher education is not related to any of the measures of academy or on the job success used in these analyses.Policing is a very labor-intensive field, and the nature of police work and organizations is becoming more complex and challenging. This is especially true of contemporary policing strategies that expand the traditional police role and place greater demands on officers. For instance, community-oriented policing suggests that policing be

Scholars have long noted the importance of the media in shaping citizens' attitudes about crime and justice. Most studies have focused on the impact of news and particularly local TV news, yet Americans spend far more time watching entertainment media. We examine the portrayal of police misconduct in crime dramas, and how exposure to these portrayals affects perceptions of the police. We find that viewers of crime dramas are more likely to believe the police are successful at lowering crime, use force only when necessary, and that misconduct does not typically lead to false confessions. In contrast, perceptions regarding the frequency of force are unaffected. Our results add to a growing literature demonstrating the importance of entertainment media for attitudes toward crime and the criminal justice system. Keywords: public opinion; media; crime dramas; police; use of force H ow do people form their attitudes about police use of force and misconduct? Although both police departments and academics recognize the importance of trust in and cooperation with the police (Tyler & Huo, 2002), little is known about where and how citizens form these impressions. Previous research suggests that much of society learns about crime and criminal justice processes not by personal experience, but rather via media exposure that shapes perceptions of crime and justice issues (Surette, 2007). For instance, media exposure has been cited as a more influential factor in shaping Americans' fear of crime than direct experience (Chiricos, Padgett, & Gertz, 2000). This should not be surprising given that Americans age 15 and older watch an average of 2.8 hr of TV per day (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). Thus, it is likely that the media also play an important role in forming attitudes about the police specifically.Studies examining the role of media in perceptions of the police in the United States have typically focused on exposure to the news. For example, citizens who report having heard or read about incidents of police misconduct on TV or in newspapers also believe that police misconduct is more prevalent than those who report less news media exposure (Weitzer & Tuch, 2004). Other studies focusing specifically on local TV news have found that citizens, especially minorities, hold more negative attitudes toward the police in the wake of highly publicized incidents of police misconduct (e.g., Weitzer, 2002; although see Chermak, McGarrell, & Gruenewald, 2006). However, local TV news audiences have been steadily shrinking, particularly among younger viewers (Potter, Matsa, & Mitchell, 2013). There is also some evidence that local TV news programs spend less time on crime stories than they did in the past (Jurkowitz et al., 2013). In any case, it is clear that the average citizen spends much more time watching entertainment programs: In 2012, Pew People & the Press reported that Americans spend an estimated 52 min, on average, watching TV news. In other words, Americans spend more than twice as much time-more than 2 hr a day-watch...