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  • Measuring police attitudes towards discretion

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    24373_1.pdf (67.62Kb)
    Author(s)
    Wortley, RK
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Wortley, Richard K.
    Year published
    2003
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    This article describes the construction of two scales to measure police attitudes toward the selective enforcement of the law. The Service-Legalistic scale measures police discretion along a flexible-inflexible continuum. Service-oriented police advocate the use of discretion to help solve social problems; legalistic police oppose discretion because it interferes with their duty to enforce the law equitably. The Watchman scale examines the use of discretion to maintain control. Watchman-oriented police simultaneously ignore minor offenses and call for greater powers to deal with serious crime. Service-related discretion was ...
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    This article describes the construction of two scales to measure police attitudes toward the selective enforcement of the law. The Service-Legalistic scale measures police discretion along a flexible-inflexible continuum. Service-oriented police advocate the use of discretion to help solve social problems; legalistic police oppose discretion because it interferes with their duty to enforce the law equitably. The Watchman scale examines the use of discretion to maintain control. Watchman-oriented police simultaneously ignore minor offenses and call for greater powers to deal with serious crime. Service-related discretion was found to negatively correlate with authoritarianism and the belief that crime is caused by the individual dispositions of offenders; watchman-related discretion positively correlated with authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, and a belief in individual crime causation.
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    Journal Title
    Criminal Justice and Behavior
    Volume
    30
    Issue
    5
    Publisher URI
    http://cjb.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/5/538
    Copyright Statement
    © 2003 Sage Publications. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. First published in Criminal Justice & Behavior. This journal is available online: http://cjb.sagepub.com/content/vol30/issue5/
    Subject
    Criminology
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/5781
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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