6 research outputs found
Crime fighting: law enforcement and service provider role orientations in community‐based police officers
A Comparison of Attitudes to the Police Between Greek Cypriots and Ethnic Minorities Living in Cyprus
The attitudes of 66 ethnic minorities and 152 Cypriots toward the police were examined
according to age, experience of criminal victimization, and race. Questions were based on
the British Crime Survey (BCS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and
were translated into Greek. Results showed low levels of experience of possession crime
and crime against the person in Cypriots and ethnic minorities, with no difference in these
experiences between the two groups. Attitudes to the police were predicted by age and
ethnicity with younger participants and Cypriots holding more negative attitudes than older
participants and ethnic minorities. Victimization experience did not predict attitudes. Some
victims of crime, who had not reported the crime to the police, stated that their reasons for
not doing so were because of their lack of trust in the police’s ability to do something about
the incident. Discussion centers on reasons why differences in attitudes toward the police
might exist and the implications of the findings for the Cypriot police force in terms of
public relations