Police perceptions of young people: a qualitative analysis

Abstract

Police views of young people inform the way they exercise discretion over this group. However, few studies have sought to formally document and examine police views of young people. The limited existing research is also mostly dated. This article begins to address this gap in the literature by presenting the results of semi-structured qualitative interviews with 41 police officers from Queensland, Australia. Stemming from a larger study of Police-Citizens Youth Clubs and using a grounded theory approach to data analysis, the article demonstrates the key ways in which police conceptualised young people. It reveals that while police had varied views, they predominantly constructed young people as in need of intervention. The article concludes by arguing that such a conceptualisation of young people could be problematic, given that police intervention has been shown to be a strong predictor of future criminal justice involvement.

Key words:

• Police perceptions
• young people
• youth
• qualitative research