Public perceptions of policing

Public perceptions of policing This paper will critically examine the effect media representations of the police can have on public perceptions of policing. In doing so it will argue that the media has a considerable influence on public perceptions of policing, highlighting that positive representations of the police are a necessity in reducing crime and creating social cohesion as a whole. This paper will conclude that negative representations should be reduced, through the media and through police accountability. In order to critically examine the effect of media representations on public perceptions, the role of the police must be discussed. Traditionally, the police role was based on the role of the night watchmen. In the late 17th Century, from every evening until sunrise, night watchmen would patrol the streets with a task to examine all suspicious characters (Emsley et al. 2012). Their main responsibility was to arrest offenders of minor crime and to deter offenders of more serious crimes (Emsley et al. 2012). To clarify, part of their role was to detect and prevent crime which generally adds to the maintaining of public order in society. This is considered to be a traditional role of the police, but, in present times this role has become much more complex. The role of the police can now be considered as split into two; to punish or to support. To explain, civil policing has a minimal distance between the police and the community, with concerns to conflict resolution and peace keeping. H owever, as a coercive and repressive force, military policing distances the service and the community by concentrating on punishment rather than community involvement. For instance, military policing has been used as an attempt to tackle the war on terror, despite the debates surrounding its considered effectiveness (Murray, 2005:347). Despite this, in recent years greater emphasis has been placed on designing policing services around public need (Myhill, 2011:273). Not only can the overall role be considered torn into antithesis, the duties within the role are numerous. McLaughlin (2007) describes police work as multifaceted in that the duties of the police include officers on the beat, stopping crimes in progress, investigating serious crimes and the arresting of offenders. In addition, the police have to focus on the deterrence of criminals as well as the reassurance of the public. On this view, police activity is in fact difficult to define and, for the most part, unrelated to law enforcement and criminal detection (Mclaughlin, 2007:52). With a police role that is in itself hard to define, it is important to discuss what the public perception of the role of the police is. The public can be considered to perceive the police as symbols of moral authority (Jackson et al. 2009:104). Therefore, the role of the police is to resolve immoral acts, and set the standard of morality. To illustrate, if the police are found to be corrupt then they are arguably damaging the moral symbol, which reduces the confidence the public have in the symbol. Perhaps due to this focus on morality, the public demand that offenders (the wrong-doers) are caught and crime is prevented (Manning cited in McLaughlin, 2007:53). Public views on policing are considered as important as administrative assessments (Myhill, 2011:273-274), this can help to ensure that their duties are executed in a satisfactory manner. Overall, public perceptions of policing are influential in their own right. In regards to this, it is important to address the perceptions of the efficiency of the police and the confidence the public have in the police. Bradford (2009) discusses four distinct groups in regards to confidence and perceptions of police effectiveness; these groups being identified through research undertaken in London. Firstly, there are the supporters who are confident about policing and the improvements in policing but have little direct experience of the police, for example, they are unlikely to have been a victim. Secondly, the contents are satisfied with policing but have indifferent feelings towards policing, similarly, they have little contact with the police. Thirdly, the needy have negative views towards the improvement of policing and do not appear to be satisfied with policing; they have high levels of police contact and victimisation. Lastly, there are the demanding who have high levels of police contact but less of this contact is caused by victimisation. They are not completely satisfied with policing but are more likely to feel informed about neighbourhood policing (Bradford, 2009:144). From this, it seems that public perceptions of the police vary due to personal experience, but the amount of contact one has with the police doesnt entirely determine whether one has a positive or negative view of policing. For example, the contents and the supporters have similar contact with the police but have differing perceptions and confidence in policing. Arguably this could be due to vicarious experience (Bradford, 2009:42), for example, stories about the police which one hears from others or through the media. This type of experience could influence ones views on policing. Concerning the split role of the police, it has been established that a more service-oriented style of policing can improve public confidence, for example neighbour policing (Myhill,2011:276). Public confidence in policing is important as it aids police-public relations, and can help to deal with the reassurance gap (Bradford, 2011:179). To clarify, crime is falling but it appears to have had little impact on public confidence in policing (Jackson et al. 2009:101). Due to this, the police are having to deal with the fear of crime in addition to attempting to control crime. The police service is trying to reduce the fear by dealing with broader concerns, for example, social disorder, as well as increasing police visibility and police-public relations (Jackson et al. 2009:101). In recent years, the media can be considered to play on this fear of crime. Ditton et al. explains that although the dominant current attitude towards the relationship between the media and crime is of the formers causing fear of the latter, it wasnt always soà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦most research attention in the field was oriented to connecting the media to viewers aggression (i.e. as potential offenders) rather than to their anxieties (i.e. as potential victims) (Ditton et al. 2011:443). On this view, if the media was to concentrate on the aggression instead of the victimisation, the fear of crime would be reduced. If this fear was reduced it would increase public confidence in policing as they would believe that crime has fallen, as opposed to the public lacking confidence in the falling rate of crime. In addition, if policing does not have to tackle the fear of crime, it leaves more time to tackle actual crime, which in turn may make police-public relations stronger. Moreover, trends in public perceptions of national and local crime rates in England and Wales of 2003/2004, found that the more people thought crime was increasing, the more they lacked confidence in the police (Myhill, 2011:275). Overall, one can argue that the media influences the public into fearing increasing crime, this lowers their confidence in the police and so infringes on the strength of police-public relations. As media representations are available for general consumption, they are one of the few means whereby the public can make sense of crime and justice (Schlesinger et al. 2010 :255). In fact, the media can be considered as something that is no longer something separable from society (McRobbieThornton, 2010:488). Furthermore, the media can emphasise what they desire to cover, and neglect others (Schlesinger et al. 2010 :260). For example, a problem with policing which can be easily sensationalised in order to sell more newspapers may be reported on, whereas a successful policing crime-prevention technique lacking dramatic value may not be. Predominantly, one may view the representations of policing in the media as negative. To illustrate, the death of Ian Tomlison was heavily reported in the media. Between Tomlisons death and the Crown Prosecution Services decision not to prosecute, there was a shift in news media attention-from police violence to the wider problem of systemic institutional failure' (Greer,2011:275). To explain, the media acknowledged the misconduct of a particular police officer, but in time forwarded alleged problems of policing itself. As the public use the media to access knowledge of crime and justice, it can be considered that the public would have followed this story from the start, and so would have gained negative perceptions of policing by the end of this string of media representations. As well as producing hyperbole in the news, the media can be guilty of misrepresentations . To illustrate, McLaughlin (2007) argues that the boundaries of the real have become heavily blurred and, to some extent, erased, in that the many fictional police based programmes give a incorrect impression of policing, and produce false perceptions of policing. The media has put the once sacred icon of national security and social order at risk (McLaughlin, 2007:114) On the other hand, the media can produce positive representations of the police, which in effect may increase positivity among the public perception of policing. For instance, Neighbourhood Blues (BBC1, 2012) represents the police in a positive light, demonstrating how they integrate with the public, for example, liaising with the homeless, giving advice, showing care and compassion as well as enforcing the law. Therefore it seems that the televised representations of policing can have its strengths and weaknesses in regards to public perceptions of policing. To clarify, on-screen media can take away the reality of policing and create false representations, however it can also be a means to demonstrate the real work that the police actually undergo. In regards to media as news reports, it appears that the more sellable the story the more likely it will be printed, and so the more scandalous stories, such as police misconduct, will be presented on a larger scale than other less sensational stories. As previously acknowledged, the effects of media representations on public perceptions of policing also affects the trust the public have in the police. Greer Castells explain, When public officials and institutions are repeatedly and sensationally named and shamed as incompetent or corrupt, and failing to adhere to the norms and values they are supposed to uphold and encourage in others, public trust is undermined (Greer McLaughlin,2012:289) An example of such, is the media reaction to the MacPherson Report, in relation to the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. Allegedly, collusion and corruption on the polices behalf occurred during the Stephen Lawrence enquiry which affected the time-scale of the case achieving justice. There were also claims of unprofessional treatment of the Lawrence family during the enquiry (MacPherson, 1999). The media was immediately receptive to the enquiry (Neal, 2003:65), taking a hold of the misconduct within the police, and transforming representations to focus on institutional racism and the need for policy intervention, with four major newspapers reporting about this on their front pages (Neal, 2003:65). These newspapers heavily criticised the police in a way which was considerably unmanageable for the police (Neal, 2003:63). It is thought that higher levels of trust are linked to positive outcomes in terms of co-operation, deference and even compliance with the law ( Tyler cited in Bradf ord 2011:179 ). In this sense, one could argue that this excess of negative representations from the media hindered this trust by encouraging public perceptions that were damaging to policing. However, on the opposite view the media can be considered to have had positive effects on public perceptions, arguably it was the sole reason for the Lawrence case eventually coming to justice. If it was not for the media initially reporting on the case, the MacPherson report might never had emerged, and the issue of institutional racism may never had been acknowledged. Taking this into account, the media helped to increase the professionalism of the police. This may not have provided a positive perception of policing , but ultimately by tackling corruption, policing will improve, and in turn this could limit the negative publicity of the police. Arguably, if the police had held themselves accountable for the misconduct in dealing with the Lawrence case, then the media would not have had to expose the corruption in the police on behalf of the community. Thereby, the police need to safeguard their trust from the public and maintain a positive representation of policing by being accoun table and professional. As well as maximising audiences as much as possible, on behalf of the public the media also challenges state institutions (Mawby, 2002, 30), therefore it is in the police services interest to have positive media relations and be more proactive in order to control the police image. There exist certain strategies as a result of this interest, the main objective being the generating of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦positive publicity, thereby influencing public opinion in favour of force objectives (Mawby,2002:317). By promoting a positive light on police work, making use of all opportunities to obtain positive publicity, ensuring a professional image, and using the media to promote policing in a positive way, the public can gain a better understanding of policing and policing objectives(Mawby,2002:317). To clarify, if the police were to be continually accountable for their acts and professional in undertaking tasks and dealing with the public, they would begin to tackle the negative image of policing that the media represents so often. This is due to the fact that the media would have less need to expose the police on behalf of the community, as the police would have deem themselves responsible prior to any media report. Moreover, the police can only do a limited amount in the realms of policing in producing a positive image to the public as it is the media that has the influence on the police-public perception. Ultimately, policing must focus on improving media relations and taking a pro-active role in promoting themselves in a positive light. This would reduce the negativity that the media can present to the public, ultimately improving the publics perception of policing. In summary, this paper has argued that media representations of the police do influence the publics perception of policing. With the police role being a debatable, complex concept, public perceptions of policing are important. As was illustrated through Bradfords distinct groups, ones perception of policing is not solely dependent on personal experience. Due to the medias need to sensationalise and their duty to speak for community, the media generally represents a negative view of the police. Furthermore, the media can be considered to play on the fear of crime which has had a massive effect on public perceptions of crime, and is counter productive in the tackling of crime and in improving the trust the public have in the police. However, the media can present policing in a positive light in informative programmes for example. This paper has argued in favour of the importance of a positive police-public relation, as this positive relationship can not only help to reduce the fear of crime but can tackle crime itself. With emphasis on the importance and the benefits of a positive relationship, it is paramount that the media limits its negative representations of policing in order to improve the public perception of the police and so the police-public relationship. However, this paper has acknowledged that the media is not always incorrect when negative perceptions of policing are represented, in fact the media can be a necessary tool in holding the police to account in certain cases. Ultimately, this can add to the professionalism of the police service, and so can improve community satisfaction. Even so, the police need to control their own image and take charge in presenting themselves positively, regardless of the media. Overall, the representation of the police in the media needs to be positive, this could be achieved through the police service itself improving its professionalism by showing accountability, alongside the necessity of the media changing throug h acknowledgment of the disadvantages they can bring by negatively representing the police. To conclude, this paper has critically examined the effect that media representations of the police can have on public perceptions of policing, and has argued that these representations do have a considerably negative effect on public perceptions, of which needs to change.

Generate Expressions

Generate Expressions 1. If a coffee company purchases paper cups at a cost of x cents for a package of ten and lids at a cost of y cents per dozen, which of the following represents its material cost, in cents, of c cups of coffee? 2. If a car rental company charges $100 for each rental, a dollars per mile, and b dollars per hour, which of the following represents the total cost to rent a car for 6 hours and travel 250 miles? 100 + 250a + 6b 3. In a library there are currently B bookshelves, each with 40 books.C new bookshelves are added, then 5 books are added to every bookshelf in the library. How many books have been added to the library? 45C + 5B 4. A boat drifts down a 200-mile river at a rate of 6 miles per hour for the first h hours. In terms of h, where h < 30, how many miles remain to be traveled? 200-6h 5. If Sarah earns d dollars per hour for babysitting, and t dollars per hour of travel time, which of the following represents her earnings after babysitting for 4 hours and traveling one hour to the family's house? 4d+t 6. The cost of a pair of shoes is S dollars.If the shoes go on sale for P percent off of their original price, and Joey buys them with a coupon for an additional C percent off of the sale price, then what price does Joey pay? | | | | 7. If Peter can mow the front lawn in 15 minutes less than twice the time it takes Amanda to mow the lawn, and Amanda can mow the lawn in h hours, which of the following expressions represents the time in hours it takes Peter to mow the lawn? 8h – 1| | 4| 8. Joe can ride his bike M miles in 1 hour. If he lives 3 miles from school and it takes him N minutes to get there, which of the following represents M in terms of N? 80| | N| 9. If each support cable can support p pounds, and the total weight of an elevator is m pounds, which of the following represents the number of cables required to support the elevator? m/p 10. If Kat is four years more than twice as old as Andrew, and Kat is a years old, whi ch of the following expressions represents the age of Andrew? 11. If Rick takes 10 seconds more than two-thirds the time it takes Ted to run the 400 meter dash, and Rick runs the 400 meter dash in s seconds, which of the following expressions represents the time it takes Ted to run the 400 meter dash? 2. The original price of for a meal is p dollars. During lunch, however, the restaurant offers a discount of x percent. Janet also uses a coupon that offers y dollars off the discounted price. Which of the following represents the price, in dollars, that Janet paid for the meal? 13. A flagpole twelve feet tall casts a shadow two feet long. If Jill is standing next to the flagpole and casts a shadow that is x inches long, how tall is Jill, in feet? 14. A repairman charges f for the first hour of work and d dollars for each additional hour.If he earns $445 working one job, and he is there for more than one hour, which of the following expressions represents the time he spent at the job? 15. If the average (arithmetic mean) of the 3 numbers above is 3y, what is x in terms of y? y 16. An apple orchard has n trees, and each tree typically produces a apples in a season. If the orchard plants m additional trees, in terms of a, n and m, what will be the expected total yield of apples? am + an 17. If the average (arithmetic mean) of w + 2 and 3w is y and the average of 3w – 4 and w is x, what is the average of x and y? 2w – ? 8. A laptop battery, when fully charged, can power a computer for h hours. The battery takes j minutes to fully charge. If the battery charged for k minutes, and k ; j, which of the following represents the amount of time, in hours, the battery can power the computer? 19. Susan is paid m dollars per hour for the f hours she works at the local record store. If she works more than f hours a week, Susan is paid an additional k dollars per hour for each additional hour. If Susan works a total of h hours in a week, and h ; f, in terms of m, f, k and h, what is Susan paid for the week? m + hk – kf 20. Derek and Pete are all paid hourly for their work at the local coffee shop. Derek is paid 10 dollars per hour, which is a dollars per hour more than Pete. Derek also works 37 hours each week, which is b hours less than Pete. If Pete earns c dollars in a week, what is a in terms of b and c? 21. The average (arithmetic mean) of three numbers is 2x. If one of the numbers is y + 3, what is the average of the remaining two numbers in terms of x and y? 22. An auditorium originally has 30 chairs per row and a total of 25 rows.The auditorium undergoes renovations so that each of the rows is extended by c chairs, and an additional r rows are added. In terms of r and c, how many additional chairs have been added? (30 + c)(25 + r) – 750 23. If Lisa's phone company charges ten cents per minute for phone calls and fifteen cents for each text message, which of the following represents the total bill (in dollars) due to the phone company if Lisa talked for m minutes and sent t texts? 0. 10m + 0. 15t 24. A taxi service charges a base fare of d dollars, and then an additional b dollars per quarter-mile. If the total fare was $11. 5, which of the following represents the total distance traveled? 25. Each box of cupcakes costs f dollars to produce and contains c cupcakes. Each cupcake is sold for d dollars. What is the profit from selling a box of cupcakes? Cd-f 26. A new hybrid car can travel t miles per gallon, and the gas tank can hold g gallons of gas. If gas costs $2 per gallon, which of the following represents the cost, in dollars, required to travel one mile? 2/t 27. If Tom is seven years less than twice as old as Rick, and Rick is n years old, which of the following expressions represents the age of Tom? n – 7 28. Which of the following represents the total cost, in dollars, if Sally bought 8 apples which cost n dollars each and 6 oranges which each cost half as much as an apple? 11n 29. T he original price of a CD was d dollars, but it was discounted x percent during a seasonal sale. If the sales tax of y percent was applied to the sale price, which of the following represents the price, in dollars, of the CD? | 30. Jen, Liz and Radha decided to take a road trip across the country. Jen drove a total of j miles.Liz drove 100 miles less than twice as many miles as Jen drove, and Radha drove half as many miles as Liz. In terms of j, what was the average miles each person drove? 31. Which of the following represents the total cost, in dollars, of y yards of yarn at 2 dollars per foot, and b buttons at 40 cents per button? (1 yard = 3 feet) 6y + 0. 4b 32. Which of the following represents the total cost in dollars for x hot dog buns and y hot dogs if buns cost $7 per dozen and hot dogs cost fifty cents each? 33. Which of the following represents the area of the figure shown above? (a – c – b) + 1/2(c + b)2 34. The average (arithmetic mean) of three numbers i s x. If one of the numbers is 2y – 1, what is the average of the remaining two numbers in terms of x and y? S and T are consecutive even integers with T > S. S is what percent of T? | | 35. A car rental company charges r dollars for the first hour and then it charges any additional hours at a rate of s dollars per hour. If the total cost for a rental is t dollars and the rental lasts longer than one hour, which of the following expressions represents the length of the rental in hours? t – r + s| s| 36. There are x coins in a jar. If one coin is to be selected at random, the probability that a penny will be selected randomly is 2/5 and the probability that a nickel will be selected randomly is 1/4. In terms of x, how many coins are neither pennies nor nickels? 37. A swimming pool can hold y gallons at maximum capacity. If a hose can fill the pool at a rate of x gallons per second, which of the following expressions represents the time, in minutes, to fill an empty swimm ing pool to 90% capacity? 38. Lisa, Sally and Jessica all sold lemonade outside of their houses.Lisa sold k cups of lemonade. Sally sold five cups less than twice as many cups of lemonade as Lisa, and Jessica sold nine cups more than three times the number of cups that Sally sold. In terms of k, how many cups of lemonade did Jessica sell? 6k – 6 39. The average of 2 numbers is A. When a third number is included, the average becomes B. What is the third number in terms of A and B? 3B – 2A 40. In a six-hour flight from New York to Los Angeles, an airplane averages 200 miles per hour during the first t hours until it reaches cruising altitude.Once at the cruising altitude, the airplane travels at 545 miles per hour for the remainder of the trip. If terms of t, where t < 6, how far is the flight? 545 ? 6 – 345t 41. If the steps above are followed in order, which of the following is a simplified expression for the result? -7y + 11x 42. Jacob wants to buy new school s upplies. If pens cost 75 cents each and notebooks cost 2 dollars each, which of the following represents the cost, in dollars, of p pens and n notebooks? 43. The force exerted on an object is defined as the product of the mass of the object and its acceleration. The force exerted on a ball is initially f.If the mass of the ball remains the same but the acceleration decreases by a factor of three, what is the resulting force on the ball? 44. The original price of a pair of pants was p dollars but they were discounted x percent during a seasonal sale. If the sales tax of y percent was applied to the discounted price, which of the following represents the price, in dollars, of the pants? 45. A hotdog stand buys hot dogs by the carton. Each carton has p packages of hot dogs, and each package contains h hot dogs. If each carton of hot dogs costs c dollars, what is the cost per hot dog? c/ph 46.

Abnormal Psychology Film Project-Girl Interrupted

Film Project-Girl Interrupted (Borderline Personality disorder) Borderline Personality disorder-a Personality disorder, which is under the large umbrella of Metal disorders. According to medicine.net, BPD is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individuals sense of self-identity. However, according to Susanna Kaysen, doesn’t everyone go have some of these symptoms every once in a while? Everyone experiences mood swings, family, and work life issues. Everyone experiences job changes, or even change in their self. Why then would these symptoms mean that someone has a†¦show more content†¦However, I’d like to believe that it was Susanna who truly helped to heal many of the women that were in that facility, including Rowe. Upon her last night at McLean facility, after taking a sleeping pill to drown out the noise and sleep peacefully, Susanna noticed her ca t Ruby was not in her room. She followed the noises leading to the downstairs tunnel that the girls would go to at night, to find Rowe, Georgina, and Polly, reading aloud Susanna’s Journal. The journal included Susanna’s truthful thoughts of the women at the facility. Rowe read these thoughts aloud to try to stir malice in the hearts of those that she was reading aloud about. After reading it, Susanna began to run, and the ladies chased her. After no other place to run to, Susanna finally broke down and told Rowe how she really felt about her. This manifestation, I believe, led to the healing of not only Rowe, but of Georgina, Polly, and Susanna. Borderline personality Disorder contains a large array of symptoms. However, the most common symptoms according to WEBMD.com are having patterns of difficult relationships caused by alternating between extremes of intense admiration and hatred of others. Having an unstable self-image or be unsure of his or her own identity. Act impulsively in ways that are self-damaging, such as extravagant spending, frequent and unprotected sex with many partners, substance abuse, binge eating, or recklessShow MoreRelatedEssay on Media Portrayal of Mental Illness in America3893 Words   |  16 Pagesmajor influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into peoples minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into peoples minds and le ave a lasting impression. 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