Different shades of blue: The influence of gender and ethnicity on attitudes towards the police in The Netherlands

Abstract

This research is focusing on the influence of gender and ethnicity on the attitudes towards the police. More specifically, this study aims to discover to what extent gender and ethnicity interact regarding the attitudes towards the police by analysing data from the European Social Survey (ESS). The sample consisted of 1563 Dutch respondents and SPSS was used to execute three multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA). The results show that ethnic minorities, the elderly, the lowest educated and people with a high level of general trust have the most positive attitudes towards the police whilst gender and previous contact with the police are non-significant. Moreover, the interaction effect is significant; the effect of gender on attitudes towards the police is moderated by ethnicity. The following ranking order, from least to most positive attitudes towards the police, can be derived: minority females, majority males, majority females and minority males.