1、中文 2715 字 本科毕业设计（论文） 外 文 翻 译 原文 ： Im OK youre not OK Drivers attitudes toward police officers enforcing traffic laws Police officers have a major role in the success of traffic law enforcement (Shinar and McKnight, 1986). Yet, as Radelet and Carter (1994) argue, “by far, the biggest conflict between
2、 the police and the public occurs in the enforcement of traffic laws” (p. 207). The present paper explores the attitudes of drivers toward police officers enforcing traffic laws as well as the relationship of these and general attitudes toward police authority. The deterring effect of an encounter w
3、ith police officers Encounters between police officers and citizens in traffic situations provide a major source of citizens hostility toward the police (Wilson, 1964). Kirkham and Wollan (1980) argue that for most citizens, traffic incidents represent their only encounter with the police. Regardles
4、s of how skilled in interpersonal relations an officer may be when apprehending a driver, there are inherently negative features in such encounters. The reasons for the publics resentment of traffic law enforcement are complex. Kirkham and Wollan (1980) suggest several explanations for the unpleasan
5、t emotions drivers experience if apprehended. First, the police officer is a salient symbol of governmental authority. Thus, an apprehension represents an instance of interference with the drivers freedom of action. Furthermore, apprehension imparts to the driver the status of a child who has been c
6、aught in some wrongdoing and is therefore about to be punished. Although drivers admit to having violated a traffic law, there is a often a feeling of having been unjustly singled out for punishment because motorists witness many instances in which violations go undetected (Kirkham and Wollan, 1980)
7、. Radelet and Carter (1994) also argue that when a driver is asked to stop and pull over to the side of the road, the driver feels singled out, suspecting that the only reason for the police officers behavior is the need to fill a quota. Furthermore, the apprehension causes feelings of guilt, which
8、the driver transfers to the police officer as a defense mechanism. Other emotions caused by apprehension are embarrassment and worry about financial consequences. Finally, these negative feelings often lead to the development of negative attitudes toward the police. On the other hand, when a police
9、officer does not punish a driver for the commission of a violation, the latter experiences extreme feelings of gratitude (Bonifacio, 1991). Nevertheless, the very act of being stopped in public by a police officer is in itself an unpleasant experience. Kirkham and Wollan (1980) maintain that “the po
10、lice cars rotating emergency lights seem to the distraught motorist to serve as a beacon which draws the entire communitys attention to the mistake he has made. The minutes of such encounters seem like agonizing hours to the helpless driver” De-Waard and Rooijers (1994) compared the influence of dir
11、ect police enforcement and enforcement with radar followed by fines sent to the offending drivers by mail. “Personal” enforcement by the police was found to be more effective in reducing speeding. The authors concluded that the advantages of enforcement by the police are the immediate feedback that
12、the driver receives and the deterring effect on other drivers who witness the scene. It is likely that the unpleasantness of the situation itself, especially the negative emotions related to an encounter with a police officer, also serves as punishment. For example, Deffenbacher et al. (1994) found
13、that the presence of the police constituted a potentially angering driving-related situation, particularly for men. Drivers perceptions of police officers Kirkham and Wollan (1980) state that the variety of explanations that drivers offer for being stopped by a police officer, refer mainly to police
14、 officers personal motives and improper conduct. For example, drivers assume that the officer is behind in his daily “quota” of traffic citations, “has it in” for sport cars or is prejudiced against blacks or whites, young drivers or old ones. Indeed, a survey asking respondents about the purpose of
15、 traffic citations for moving violations revealed that drivers do not consider accident prevention to be a major motive behind police officers actions: 48 percent of the respondents believed that the purpose was to raise revenue for law enforcement, 17 percent thought it was to raise revenue for the
16、 city, and only 6 percent attributed it to the attempt to prevent accidents (Waters and Mcgrath, 1974). Sweeney (1982) maintains that drivers often regard traffic law enforcement as a form of sporting competition between the pursuers and the pursued. For example, drivers invest large sums of money i
17、n radar detectors. At the same time, the public sometimes resents what it considers “unfair” tactics on the part of police； enforcement techniques that make use of concealed observations may leave a bad taste in the publics mouth. Police officers role and the perceived risk of apprehension Shinar an
18、d McKnight (1986), adopting a utility model of human behavior, suggested that the effectiveness of traffic law enforcement is strongly related to the perceived risk of apprehension, which depends on the salience of the police force, its perceived preparedness to apprehend, and the density (either ac
19、tual or perceived) of police units per road section. The authors argue, however, that a major problem is inherent in the contradiction between the two purposes of enforcement: apprehending those who violate the law and increasing long-term obedience. Whereas a low visibility for police units is nece
20、ssary to achieve the first purpose, high visibility would heighten the perception of the risk of apprehension and thereby increase obedience in the long run. The authors contend that enforcement units should be visible and perceived as threatening which means that police officers should spend minima
21、l time in apprehending drivers, since during this time they are perceived as incapable of apprehending other violators. It could be further argued that the perceived risk of apprehension and, consequently, the effectiveness of police enforcement depend not only on the objective characteristics of the police but also on a drivers perception of police officers attributes. The perception of police officers as competent and effective, for
