Introduction
Bias is an action or an attitude that is unfair, prejudicial, and narrow-minded. Humans are oftentimes making fast conclusions, judgments, and using the power of their positions as it is in their nature. However, in modern society individuals make an effort to abandon bias ideas and reach an equal attitude towards other people. The latter should be the major goal for every society as it frames the humane proper relationships between humans. Workers in the authority structures sometimes possess a substantial amount of prejudice, and police officers have been noticed with using indifferent treatment of humans. Several investigations proved the various policemen’s performances towards civilians of a different social class. Still, the level of income cannot embody the treatment of authorities, especially police officers that primarily are aiming to protect the public.
Further research will analyze secondary data regarding the attitude of police representatives towards civilians. The goals of the paper will focus on finding the major issues triggering such behaviors and identifying possible solutions to the problem. The current work is a literature review that will provide a report of secondary data and will be used as a theoretical base for the ongoing research.
The Attitude of the Public Towards Police
Before studying the reasons for police officers’ various treatment towards citizens, it is essential to investigate the specialties of the public attitude towards them. Various scholarly works prove the mistrust and uncertainty addressed to the police from the population of several countries depending on their levels of income, education, and neighborhoods they inhabit. The work by Weitzer and Tuch (1999, 497) proved the attitude of the citizens towards police depending on their race and class. Black civilians of a middle-class had more favorable perceptions of policemen compared to similar race representatives of a lower class. The study by Boateng (2016, 218) analyzed various neighborhoods with different socioeconomic levels in Ghana and proved people living in higher-income communities with higher education had more trust and confidence in police (Boateng, 2016, 231). The research also identified an average fear of crime to be the factor raising the trust and belief in the police.
Additionally, a study by Oliveira and Murphy (2014, 263) proved on Australian citizens that social class was a stronger determinant of the public’s perceptions of the police. Racial and ethnic minorities were more satisfied with police performance than low-class representatives (Oliveira and Murphy 2014, 269). Thus, the social class of individuals seems to be the major factor embodying the view of law enforcement. Still, such judgments are relevant to the countries located in the West. Chinese communities have a different structure of society and the state. Wu, Sun, and Hu (2016, 179) investigated the police social tension and public perceptions in China. The outcomes of the study proved low-income citizens were more favorable towards police structures than people of higher social status (Wu, Sun, and Hu 2016, 181). Such attitudes can be explained by higher expectations of the service provided by the police from higher class representatives.
Another study tries to clarify the possible factors shaping the opinions about police in China. The authors included various conflict variables and figured that age and political influence were the most significant (Wu and Sun 2009, 171). Thus, the structure of society identifies the attitudes towards police coming from the various public groups. Not always the social class of citizens shapes the attitude to police and their treatment of the citizens.
However, racial minorities generally have a higher level of mistrust towards police as they more frequently face uncontrolled shootings to the civilians, over-policy, and unfair obligation of sanctions. They do not wish to cooperate with law enforcement officers and oftentimes follow various psychological models. According to the study by Duck (2017, 133), the mistrust among African Americans inhabiting poor communities in the U.S. leads to behavior of submissive civility and non-recognition. The latter means overconforming to social norms and refusing to accept the legality of the negative consequences (Duck, 2017, 135). The investigation by Duck discloses the social issue of racism among policemen in the U.S. and explains the specialties of African Americans’ mistrust towards them.
A similar negative attitude to the police department was mentioned by Schuck, Rosenbaum, and Hawkins (2008, 496) among ethnic subgroups in the U.S. compared to White race participants. The other study proved the biased attitude towards racial minorities and people of low income stopped on the street by the police (Henry and Franklin 2019, 421). The majority of the participants considered stops by the police justified; however, African Americans, Latinos, and lower-class respondents claimed that their stops were not legitimate. This research attracts attention to the racial and socioeconomic factors as predictors of legitimacy, and how minor society groups can interpret the attitude of the policemen towards them. Race and class are not relevant to the non-traffic stops on the streets but the perception of that can vary from the citizen’s side. It is significant to comprehend that the nature of the relationships between citizens and the police is bilateral and talking about solving the issue one must also focus on bettering the attitudes of the population towards police officers.
Analyzing Policemen’s Conduct
The indifferent attitude of the policemen towards various social groups is also forming the issue. Police malpractice noted by citizens deteriorates the relationships between officers and the public. Lersch (1998, 81) identified a tendency of victims experiencing inappropriate treatment by the police to file complaints about the violations. More interestingly, the majority of the complainants had limited access to resources and power, were of low income and education levels, and most of them were unemployed (Lersh 1998, 88). These studies highlight the issue of social class as a decisive factor of police treatment. The latter also proves the actuality of the current research and demonstrates that social status indeed defines the specialties of interactions with police officers.
Another factor impacting police treatment in society is geographical demarcations based on class. These two variables were studied by Cankaya (2020, 703) in the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands, as a case study to highlight the impact of geo-policing on urban subpopulations. Demarcations based on class are better viewed in urban areas because all the city divides into neighborhoods of various characteristics. Police officers patrol the affluent neighborhoods trying to identify people belonging to marginalized groups rather than looking for criminal behavior (Cankaya 2020, 708). Members of these marginalized groups, whom Cankaya refers to as allochthones, are subjected to police stops when found out of their “proper places.” Thus, the police consider the presence of allochthones in the privileged neighborhoods a security risk, but they become less threatening when confined to marginalized neighborhoods. This proactive policing approach unfairly targets low-class residents and racial minorities, whose freedom of movement becomes restricted.
Police have been noticed several times on having prejudicial beliefs about Black and Latina people. The investigation by Hitchens, Carr, and Clampet-Lundquist (2017, 45) explores females’ experiences in high-crime neighborhoods of Philadelphia with law enforcement from a racial perspective. The study aimed to gather an equal number of participants of White, Black, and Latina ethnicity and interviewed them in terms of the character of their communications with police. The majority of females reported physical aggression, sexual harassment, and incidents of being stopped by the police while walking alone on the streets (Hitchens, Carr, and Clampet-Lundquist 2017, 45). Police may have a higher amount of prejudice towards women of a Black and Latina race than towards White female representatives.
Nevertheless, another study demonstrated treatment disparities by police were met among both genders and were more likely to experience force implementation. Research by Motley and Joe (2018, 50) proved the higher chance of facing police violence and force usage among Black men earning less than 20000$ compared to the white population. Police force inequalities are one of the major issues in the U.S. It is possible that implementing less aggressive, respectful, appropriate, and caring behavior can help melt the ice between minor populations and police, improve the trust in the authorities, and reduce crime rates. The study by Loftus (2015, 184) illuminates sexual and socioeconomic criteria leading to discriminative attitudes by police towards citizens in the United Kingdom. The author proved that white male representatives living in poverty were facing more biased treatment from the officers than disadvantaged minorities in the U.S. (Loftus 2015, 187). The study proves social class to be a crucial factor in identifying police treatment of civilians.
Another aspect characterizing police officers’ attitude is the authoritarian style of behavior that embodies the government’s way of ruling. For instance, in Singapore, a soft authoritarian government, police interactions with low-class citizens can be defined by the approach “divide-and-rule” (Kamaludeen, 2018, 219). This occurs because the poor stratum of society is considered by police to be problematic, and poverty is generally linked by them with criminality. Spreading the popular ethnic stereotypes makes the low-income citizens marginalized and separated from the other communities. Moreover, such stereotypes have led to a disproportional imprisoning of Malay men (Kamaludeen, 2018, 220). The authoritarian style implemented by both the state and the police can lead to overcontrol of the public and manipulation of low-class societies. Such directions in relationship building are deteriorating the trust in the police and impacting people’s faith in them.
Police behavior might not be authoritarian but contain a substantial amount of aggression. Police officers possessing their power might make use of their status when cooperating with citizens. For instance, the study in Florida and Indiana proved an increased force usage by the police on both legal and extra-legal occasions (Terrill and Mastrofski 2002, 215). The biggest number of force implementation was identified towards male, young, and nonwhite suspects (Terrill and Mastrofski 2002, 215). Another study also highlighted the abuse of power by the police on socioeconomically disadvantaged Blacks compared to affluent individuals (Weitzer and Tuch 2002, 436). The authors proposed the explanation of such conduct by experiencing a higher number of crimes from Black people inhabiting disadvantaged communities (Weitzer and Tuch 2002, 437). However, race and class factors should not be major characteristics of crime commitment as well as police subjectivity is irrelevant in their practice.
Inaccurate treatment of youth can lead to a variety of problems regarding their education and psychological condition. The young generation is believed to be the most vulnerable part of society responding to increased police presence and their aggression. Legewie and Fagan (2019, 2) investigated the impact of the increased number of interactions of youth with criminal justice authorities. The study proved that in low-income societies aggressive policy on young citizens negatively influences their education outcomes (Legewie and Fagan 2019, 5). Even though the state’s aim was to reduce the number of crimes by increasing the policy surveillance, such circumstances impacted young minorities by lowering their school attendance and educational performance. In order to prevent the worsening of education inequality in poor neighborhoods, it is essential to develop milder strategies to avoid aggravated policies.
Negative experiences with police can also impact the psychological condition of the young. The study by Tummala-Narra and Sathasivam-Rueckert (2013, 218) illuminated the issue of developing depressive symptoms among adolescent females after the interaction with police (Tummala-Narra and Sathasivam-Rueckert 2013, 215). The girls mostly had anxious thoughts about the fair performance of the officers regarding racial and socioeconomic characteristics. The last two studies prove the negative effect of police behavior on young generation representatives.
Possible Factors Impacting the Issue
One of the possible reasons for the indifferent police attitude to people of low social class is the biased data that makes an impression of a higher crime rate in poor neighborhoods compared to rich communities. The Oakland Police Department in Oakland, California was mentioned to focus their attention on low-income neighborhoods and consequently arrested civilians dominantly from these areas (Lum and Isaac 2016, 3). A disproportionate number of arrests was contractionary to the actual number of drug-related crimes that were relatively equally disseminated in the city. Hence, the expectations of the poor regions to contain more crime leads to prejudicial behavior and subjectivity. These actions also lead to statistic deviation because stopping the criminals in the streets of poor communities increases proportionally to the police surveillance in these locations. It is possible that rich regions are underestimated by the police as they give privilege in monitoring low-income areas.
At the same time, increased surveillance by the police in poor regions does not guarantee the proper protection of low-income inhabitants. The distribution of police resources was proved to be unequal among disadvantaged communities (Thacher 2011, 277). The latter proves the disproportionate dissemination of police protection depending on class and race which means the citizens are not fully protected by the police. Another study also proved disadvantaged neighborhoods had more limited access to police protection compared to wealthier communities (Carmichael and Kent 2014, 261). The authors use a racial threat theory to explain the possible factors leading to the disproportionate spread of municipal sources. The significant increase of the Hispanic population between the 1980s and the 2010s also led to an unequal decline in the size of police sources in specific jurisdictions (Carmichael and Kent 2014, 263). Thus, the issue of uneven spread of police sources should be reconsidered to reach a higher level of protection in low-income communities.
Legitimacy is important for police officers to gain the trust and confidence of the public. Not always do people consider the police to have similar perceptions of right and wrong. Citizens can hesitate in the legitimacy of police actions and might consider they do not act inside the boundaries of their authority. The latter worsens because of the rapidly spreading video evidence of policemen making use of their authority while interacting with marginalized communities and low-class individuals (Small 2018, 8059). Such events break the trust toward the law enforcement officers and lead people to decrease the number of reports about crimes to the police. The study by Huq, Jackson, and Trinkner (2017, 1111) proposed possible solutions to the problem using legal socialization to help police reach the respect of their authority and responsibility avoiding the misappropriation of their power at the same time.
The level of legitimacy also worsens when the authorities are corrupt and do not follow the law themselves. For instance, in Uganda, such minorities as refugees face a great number of obstacles with hostility from the country, bias from policemen, increased document checking, and restricted economic conditions (Nyaoro 2010, 128). Corrupt police officers ask for bribes and make the position of refugees even more vulnerable. The lack of governmental control, bias coming from law enforcement, and poor social services to marginalized communities influence the perception of the police officers and the faith of the citizens.
State policies can impact the conduct of police departments and lead to unequal attitudes of the latter towards various community groups. A bright example of indifferent treatment by the police is their attitude towards poor women’s reproductive lives during Brazil’s First Republic (1889–1930) and the beginning of Vargas’s regime (1930–1937) (Roth 2017, 85). During these times, the Brazilian government shifted their strategies from familial into state patriarchy, and due to that, women’s reproductive health became a public concern (Roth 2017, 88). Policemen were used to control women’s sexual life, and their attitude toward low social class women was formed by the state laws. Police viewed women negatively and perceived them as having a limited and sole responsibility to give birth to children and prolong the generation. Therefore, the conditions created by the government can also ruin the values and perceptions of specific social groups. In this case, the Brazilian government changed the view of the police of women living in poverty and shaped relevant treatment towards them.
Another opinion of state’s participation impacting the discriminative attitudes towards minorities by the police is presented in the study by Soss and Weaver (2017, 565). The authors disclose the social control regulated by the government includes pressure, monitoring, viciousness, and repression (Soss and Weaver 2017, 567). Hence, indifferent treatment of the disadvantaged groups of the population leads to their rapid marginalization and separation from other strata of the society. The authors believe the disproportional treatment coming from police is initially implemented by the government to achieve various political goals (Soss and Weaver 2017, 568). This opinion illuminates the possible substantial factor leading to bias and shaping the structure of the state. Fighting dominative positions of the government in achieving its aims with the help of other authorities can help enhance the perception of the police in society and reach higher levels of trust.
Solutions for the Issue
Aggressive and invasive policing can be solved by dividing the responsibilities between several authorities. Miller (2006, 618) states that involving in policymaking communities, municipalities, and various private organizations can help divide the functions of police officers and reduce their power. The latter can enhance the relationship between the public and police, initiate better cooperation between them, and raise trust and confidence levels in local authorities.
Changing the attitude to the public coming from police officers can improve the levels of trust in them and their relationships with citizens. With a more respectful way of building the conversation, police can reach a higher level of understanding with people and receive help from them regarding fighting the crime. The study by Reisig and Lloyd (2009, 45) investigated the reaction of high-school students from low-income families to assisting policemen depending on the way the latter treated them. The students experienced the participation of the officers, their willingness to be a part of procedural justice. This bettered the interrelations between police and students and helped work in the direction of law enforcement efforts.
Increasing the participation of the police in crime prevention approaches, promotion of social welfare, and security enhancement can improve the image of the police department. Cooperating with people regarding their safety can increase the trust levels and general perception of police officers. Wilson (2005, 101) discloses various duties of policemen including data gathering of poverty levels, actions in social welfare, pensions administration, and many others. Usually, the public does not value such detailed and important work by police. Spreading the information about police officers’ participation in their social life, focusing the attention of the citizens on these facts can help enhance the values of the police department.
Another example of preventing policy strategy is problem-oriented approaches policemen do to better the crime ratings in areas with high statistical reports. The public perceives the major aim of the police department is to react to crime and implement sanctions on civilians. However, an inevitable part of police performance is crime prevention and the creation of a safe and protected community. Carson and Wellman (2017, 30) describe the outcomes of the realization of a problem-oriented policy as a community strategy that permits to use of resources outside the criminal justice system.
As a result, police can identify, explore, and implement the outcomes to contextual problems that promote crime. The officers went through training and were taught to target mental health issues in low-income suburban areas in order to prevent crime (Carson and Wellman (2017, 29). The program was unsuccessful because of poor support from the community and the absence of strong leadership. However, crime prevention strategies can be major in solving the issue of crime rates and developing a trustworthy relationship between police and people. Implementation of these strategies in low-income communities can lead to lowering the crime in disadvantaged neighborhoods and identifying social problems that need further solutions.
Conclusion
The current work united secondary data observing and disclosing the issue of the social class factor defining the treatment of police officers of the public. The problem is complicated and should be analyzed from various perspectives including state structure, citizen’s gender, level of education, and race. The current literature review contains four subheadings regarding the attitude of the public towards law enforcement officers, the specialties of policemen conduct, the possible factors impacting the issue, and possible solutions to the illuminated problem. The majority of studies proved social class to be the leading factor defining the further interrelation with police officers. Increasing the participation of the police in crime prevention strategies, dividing their responsibilities between several approaches, and focusing on the promotion of social welfare can enhance the relationship between civilians and policemen and lead to strong cooperative connections between them.
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