Past studies of juveniles' attitudes toward the police suggest a single-cause model that implicates personal interactions with the police. We propose that attitudes toward authority and agents of social control develop in a larger, soc~iocuttural context. Specifically we hypothesize that juveniles' attitudes develop as a function of socialization in their communities' social environment, of their deviant subcultural '~preferences," and of the prior effect of these sociocultural factors on juveniles' contacts with the police. We conducted analyses addressing these hypotheses with a population of males sampled within stratified populations of known delinquents. We found that social background variables, particularly minority status, and subcultural preferences, particularly commitment to delinquent norms, affected juveniles' attitudes toward the police both directly and indirectly (through police-juvenile interactions). We consider directions for improving police relations with juveniles in the context of apparent sociocultural and experiential contingencies to attitude development.Citizens' attitudes toward the police have been surveyed extensively in the last few decades (e.g., Brandl et al. 1994;Erez 1984;

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of the working relationship between police officers and private security officers in South Korea. More specifically, this study examines how police officers and security personnel perceive the working relationships between the two organizations, their attitudes on the professionalism of security personnel, their views of ways to improve the working relationship, and their perceptions of the future of public and private police relationships.Design/methodology/approachSimilar to the experience of many developed and developing economies, South Korea has experienced a significant increase in the number of private security personnel employed in the last three decades relative to the employment data on law enforcement officers. To reveal the nature of the working relationship between the two groups, this study utilized a recent survey of 258 police officers and 134 private security officers in South Korea.FindingsWhile both law enforcement and private security officers were positive about their relationship with each other, security officers are more optimistic about achieving improvements in police/security relationships. Further, the findings also reveal that both police officers and security professionals believe that the other group could do more to encourage a positive working relationship.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this research has made modest inroads into assessing the views of street level bureaucrats, further research is also needed to assess the extent to which the administrators of both public and private police organizations consider each other viable partners in addressing citizens' safety concerns.Practical implicationsThe level of optimism and support among private security personnel concerning the role of security is greater than that of police officers, which indicated that the police could do more to improve the relationship between the two.Originality/valueEmpirical research on the nature of the relationship between the public and the private professionals in a South Korean context enabled investigation into the aspects inherent to developing countries.