Wortley, RK (2003) Measuring police attitudes toward discretion. CRIM JUSTICE BEHAV , 30 (5) 538 - 558. 10.1177/0093854803254805.
![[img]](/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
| PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader 161Kb |
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 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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Measuring police attitudes toward discretion |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0093854803254805 |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | police discretion, police decision making, police personality, authoritarianism, ethnocentrism, JUROR BIAS, AUTHORITARIANISM, PERSONALITY, DOGMATISM, IDEOLOGY, OFFICERS, SCALE |
| UCL classification: | UCL > School of BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Security and Crime Science |
View download statistics for this itemArchive Staff Only: edit this record