Comparing Students' Perspectives on a Rural University's Special District Police Department and Student's Traditional Hometown Police Departments

<p>Understanding the public perceptions of police is not a new topic, but it is one that has not focused on that of university students. This current study aims to fill the gap in knowledge by comparing student’s perceptions of two different police departments; traditional hometown police departments and special district police. This study targeted a specific population, college students, that needs additional research to understand what factors contribute to their perceptions of police. This study gathered students’ perceptions of police using an email survey of all on-campus students in a regional state university. Using OLS regression, I was able to see the effect of select variables, like race, gender, living on/off campus, fear of crime on campus, social cohesion on perceptions of police. This study found that effectiveness, social cohesion, race, and sexual orientation was statistically significant and positively associated with the dependent variable.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Law and Justice

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Pierce, Angela

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cody Stoddard
• Jillian Desmond
• Michael Harrod

• Attitudes towards police
• campus police
• special police districts
• race
• sexual orientation
• social cohesion
• and effectiveness
• Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1387

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-2412