Ethnic minority status and attitudes towards police powers: A comparative study of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

It is one of the axioms of police research that the relationship between the police and ethnic minorities is, to say the least, problematic. There is now a growing body of empirical research which shows that the relationship is characterized by mutual antipathy. Using recent comparable data from Gre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethnic and racial studies 1997-10, Vol.20 (4), p.781-796
Main Authors: Hayes, Bernadette C., Brewer, John D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Comparative analysis
Comparative Study
Crime
Ethnic groups
Ethnic Minorities
Great Britain
Ireland
Ireland, Northern
Irish Republic
Minorities
Minority & ethnic groups
Northern Ireland
Offenders
Perceptions
Police
Police Community Relations
Police powers
Power
Religion
United Kingdom
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Summary:It is one of the axioms of police research that the relationship between the police and ethnic minorities is, to say the least, problematic. There is now a growing body of empirical research which shows that the relationship is characterized by mutual antipathy. Using recent comparable data from Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, such conventional wisdom is tested in this article by means of ethnic responses to the power of the police in dealing with known criminals. Using multivariate regression analysis, the results suggest that not only is the relationship between ethnic minority status and attitudes towards the power of the police clearly different across these three countries, it also operated in unexpected ways which run directly counter to well-accepted beliefs about the problematic relationship between the police and members of ethnic minority groups. In other words, for these three societies at least, occupying an ethnic minority group status does not automatically lead to a negative view of the powers that the police should be accorded in the pursuit of known criminals.
ISSN:0141-9870
1466-4356
DOI:10.1080/01419870.1997.9993989