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The Constable's New Clothes: Effects of Uniforms on Perceptions and Problems of Police Officers 1
Author(s) -
Mauro Robert
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1984.tb02219.x
Subject(s) - officer , clothing , psychology , style (visual arts) , perception , police department , social psychology , criminology , law , political science , history , archaeology , neuroscience
Popular beliefs concerning the effect of clothing styles on behavior have had important policy ramifications. For instance, in the interest of developing better police‐community relations, numerous police departments have considered changing from a traditional police uniform to a more “civilian” style of dress. Effects of such an alteration were examined in the laboratory and in the field. No positive effects of the uniform change were found. Compared to officers wearing a blazer‐style uniform, officers wearing traditional uniforms were perceived as more honest, more active, more helpful, more competent, more “good”, more valuable, faster, and as possessing better judgment. Data on arrests for resisting arrest and assaults on a police officer were obtained from a police department which adopted, then 8 years later abandoned, a civilian style blazer uniform. No effect of the uniform change on the number of assaults on police officers and arrests for resisting arrest was found, contrary to previous reports.