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POLICE HARASSMENT.
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Research proposal to determine factors shaping public views of harassment.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Research proposal to determine factors shaping public views of harassment.
Paper Introduction:
Introduction
According to Aronson, Wilson and Akert (1998), there are approximately 500,000 police officers in the United States plus 220,000 support employees. The police are citizen's first link with America's criminal justice system and although they should be free of ethnic or racial bias, Aronson, Wilson and Akert report that many police officers throughout the country hold prejudicial views of ethnic minorities. Here, prejudicial views are defined as consisting of: a) a sense of being superior to members of a minority group; b) feelings that minorities are by their nature different or alien; c) a sense that dominant group members have proprietary claims on privilege, power and prestige; and d) a fear and suspicion that members of the minority have designs on dominant group benefits.
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The survey research handbook:Guidelines and strategies for conducting a survey (2nd ed.), NY: Irwin. Wherepossible, the comments of the pilot sample will be incorporated into athird and final draft of the instrument which will be the survey that isused in the actual study.Data Analysis Two types of statistical methods will be used to analyze data:descriptive analyses and inferential analyses. (1998). Races divided over discriminationand harassment. MethodsResearch Approach The proposed study will use survey methods. In an effort to boost the psychometric soundness of the surveyinstrument, certain steps will be taken, all of which are recommended byKalton (1983) as a means of enhancing the validity and reliability ofresearcher-designed or researcher-modified instruments. The practical statistician:Simplified handbook of statistics. & Lyman, O. Thepurpose of this paper is to design a study that explores public opinions ofpolice harassment. The poll will be modified by switching the questions from the stateto the city. The police are citizen's first link with America'scriminal justice system and although they should be free of ethnic orracial bias, Aronson, Wilson and Akert report that many police officersthroughout the country hold prejudicial views of ethnic minorities. Hewstone (199 ) further notes that this ethnocentric bias will begreatest when: the groups involved have historical or intense conflict;possess especially negative stereotypes of each other; and when racial andethnic differences vary with national or international socioeconomicdifferences. Introduction According to Aronson, Wilson and Akert (1998), there areapproximately 5 , police officers in the United States plus 22 , support employees. (1983). According to Hewstone, people in general, andprejudiced people in particular, often have an ethnocentric or culturalbias in their attributions that favors their own ethnic/racial group overothers. Each type of analysis isdiscussed below. Here,prejudicial views are defined as consisting of: a) a sense of beingsuperior to members of a minority group; b) feelings that minorities are by their nature different or alien; c) a sense that dominant group membershave proprietary claims on privilege, power and prestige; and d) a fear andsuspicion that members of the minority have designs on dominant groupbenefits. First, it can provide a gooddeal of information in a relatively short period of time. Linton, M. If the strataor groups are homogeneous, it can be expected that the variability within-groups will be lower than the variability for the population as a whole.Stratified sampling capitalizes on that fact.Instrumentation The research instrument that will be used in the study will be amodified version of the of the KAET Public Opinion Poll used by Merrill andPhelps (1998) in their investigation of how Arizona voters feel aboutdiscrimination in the state. In general, the poll asks respondents to rate: the extent to whichthey feel discrimination is a general problem in their state (not much of aproblem, somewhat of a problem, a problem, a serious problem, undecided);the extent to which they feel harassment by the police of minorities is aproblem in their state (not much of a problem, somewhat of a problem, aproblem, a serious problem, undecided); and several other crime and policerelated issues. (1975). Finally, just to flesh out understanding of the police harassment andpublic approval/disapproval relationship, a subsidiary set of analyses willbe conducted. Further, since this study is to becommissioned by the Mayor's office in a large city, it is possible thatgroups with different agendas that the Mayor may try to undermine the studyby stopping it from being conducted. Survey methods are selected as the basic research approach because,according to Scheaffer et. Elementarysurvey sampling. & Phelps, L. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. This analysis will be conducted using the Pearsonproduct moment correlation which, according to Linton and Gallo (1975) canbe utilized on data collected using Likert-type response scaling. Further, datarecorders who will be sent to respondents' homes will also cost a good dealof money. Inthis regard, Alreck and Settle (1994) state that the stratified randomsample (also sometimes called proportional or quota random sampling),involves dividing the population into homogeneous subgroups and then takinga simple random sample in each subgroup. Theory While there is no criminal theory that addresses police harassment ofminorities, Hewstone (199 ) reports that discriminatory behavior andrelated actions could well be related to what has come to be known as "theultimate attribution error."The ultimate attribution error deals with attributions related toprejudicial or biased views. According to Alreck and Settle (1994), there are several advantagesassociated with using the stratified random sample in survey research.First, the stratified random sample assures representativeness of not onlythe overall population of the city, but also key subgroups of thepopulation, especially small minority groups. Also, while data recorders will be sent to the houses of people toask them to complete the survey, it is possible that some people willdecline participation in the study. Hewstone, M. Another possible problem may be the surveyquestionnaire which is not a standardized instrument; however, once againefforts are to be taken to boost the psychometric quality of theinstrument. al (1996), it has three advantages with respectto gathering information from a large sample. The first steptaken will be to develop the first draft of the survey and provide it to apanel of experts who will be asked to make recommendations for improvingits psychometric properties of validity and reliability. Kalton, P. Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D., Akert, R.M. Duxbury Press.----------------------- 4 Document available: www.Kaet.asu.edu/horizon/poll/oct2695.htm. Usually, thesurvey asks people questions from a structured questionnaire. Thestratified sampling technique is used to attempt to ensurerepresentativeness. In particular, the proposed research is designed toexamine whether public disapproval of police officers in a large cityincreases as a function of increases in their perception of police asharassing minorities. Another benefit associated with stratified randomsampling, according to Aleck and Settle (1994), is that it will generallyhave more statistical precision than simple random sampling. In this way, it is likely that the general representativeness ofthe sample will be maintained.Practical Considerations The primary practical consideration is money. Prior to conducting any inferentialstatistical analyses, general measures of central tendency (means, medians,modes) and of variability (variance, standard deviations, ranges) will becomputed across all respondents for each item on the survey questionnaire.In addition, measures of central tendency and variability will be tabulatedseparately for each separate racial/ethnic group, age group, religiousgroup, and gender group. In theproposed research, several data recorders will be hired to contact allpeople selected via the sampling plan and ask them for their responses toall items on a researcher-designed survey questionnaire. They will also be askedto rate the extent to which they approve of the job their own city's policeare doing. While the foregoing analysis will provide insight into the overallsample's perceptions of police harassment and public approval/disapprovalfor city police, it does not allow for an analysis of demographicdifferences associated with this relationship.For each ethnic/racial, age,gender and religious group, separate correlational analyses will becomputed for their ratings of the extent to which they believe policeharassment is a problem in their city and the extent to which they approveof the job police are doing. Merrill, B. (199 ). Beverly Hills,CA: Sage. It is further noted that while there are many ways in which peoplewill evidence their prejudicial views, in the cases of police officers,this will frequently manifest itself in terms of harassing minorities suchas frequent and unneeded stopping and searching of minority citizens. The first inferential analysis that will beconducted on data will be used to determine whether increases in samplesubjects' perception of police as harassing minorities is associated withdecreases in their approval of the extent to which they believe city policeare doing a good job. A review of theliterature on intergroup causal attribution. A simple random sample is thendrawn from each subgroup. Applying this theory to police harassment, it seems reasonableto state that the discriminatory behavior implicit in constant harassmentof minorities may result from the fact that police officers have a setperception in which their ethnocentric bias is rooted in both negativeethnic/racial stereotypes and, since many of the minorities who are subjectto harassment are often poor, socioeconomic differences. And, third, theprecise categorical data provided by surveys is highly amenable tostatistical quantitative analysis.Sampling Plan A stratified random sample of citizens in the city will be drawn. Social psychology (3rded.) NY: Longman. further, the pool will include a section in which responsesare asked to rate the extent to which they disapprove of discrimination ingeneral, and police discrimination in particular. The survey utilizes a Likert-typeresponse format which, according to Linton and Gallo (1975) is amenable toanalysis using powerful parametric statistics. The ultimate attribution error? These will consist of several analyses of variance used toexamine whether general feelings toward discrimination, general feelingstoward police harassment in their city, and general feelings that policeare doing a good job significantly differ in relation to differences inrespondents' races, age, gender and religious background.Limitations The primary limitation of the study will be to make sure that thesample is representative of the population from which it is drawn. Introduction to survey sampling. Scheaffer, Mendenhall andLyman (1996) define survey research as a quantitative technique involvingsystematically asking people about their attitudes, feelings, ideas,opinions, behaviors, or anything else of research interest. (1996). Inferential Analyses. It will take money tohire sociopolitical consultants to help in drawing up the stratified randomsample so as to make sure that it is representative. Co-sponsored by KAET-TV and the CronkiteSchool of Journalism and Telecommunication at Arizona State University, thepoll contains a number of highly structured questions about both generaldiscrimination and police harassment. European Journal of SocialPsychology, 2 , 311-335. (1998). References Alreck, P.L. The "ultimate attribution error occurs: (1) when prejudice people perceive what they regard as a negative(undesirable) act by an outgroup member (a member of a group with whichthey do not affiliate or identify), they will generally attribute itdispositionally, often as genetically determined, in comparison to the sameact by an ingroup member (a member of a group with which they do affiliateor identify); (2) when prejudice people perceive what they regard as a positive actby an outgroup member, they will attribute it to one or more of thefollowing: (a) "The exceptional case," (b) luck or special advantage, (c)high motivation and effort, or (d) manipulable situational context. Thus comparisons can be madeof the opinions of the dominant white group in relation to the city'sminorities. Second, if thesurvey is highly structured (as it will be in this study), responses can beuniformly categorized which makes tabulation easier. These separate correlations will be comparedto one another in order to determine whether the relationship between thetwo perceptions differs as a function of ethnic, age, religious, or gendergroup differences. & Gallo, P.S. This series of analyses should provide a generalprofile of sample responses to the survey. Further, the survey instrument will contain a demographicsection designed to collect background information on respondents withrespect to their ethnicity/racial background, gender, age, and religiousbackground. Further, printing up the survey instruments will be a cost factorthat needs to be considered. (1994). Scheaffer, R.L., Mendenhall, W.I. Descriptive Analyses. & Settle, R.B. This could mean a loss inrepresentativeness. These recommendations will then be incorporated into a second draftof the instrument and pilot tested on a small sample (n = 5) of people whowill be required to complete it and comment on its understandability. Therefore, for each subject who refuses to participate,another subject will be randomly selected from the appropriate group orsubgroup.
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