Search

“Personal” and “shared” aspects of sense of community identity are explored in a an established community in Durham City, England. Durham City has a history of over 1,000 years of continuous settlement, and is generally viewed as a stable and relatively harmonious setting. In the study 102 residents responded to a Community Response Questionnaire based on Puddifoot's taxonomy of elements of sense of community. The findings suggest the existence of three underlying “personal” dimensions of Sense of Community Identity (SOCI), namely, “Sense of Personal Support,” “Sense of Personal Contentedness,” and “Personal Involvement,” and three “shared” dimensions of SOCI, namely, “Perceived Community Engagement,” “Perceived Neighborliness,” and “Perceived Settledness.” This article discusses these findings and the prospect of creating a measure for comparative analysis around these dimensions. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. This study examines the influence of experi enti al vari ables, such as reported contacts with the poli ce, upon attitudes towards the use of police weaponry i n England and Wales. Method. A factor analysis (N = 605) of response to a special ly devel oped questionnaire l ed to the identification of five underl ying dimensions of publ ic attitudes towards pol ice weaponry. Further anal yses explored the role of demographic and experi ential variables in these attitudes. Results. Neither age nor sex were found to have a significant eVect upon attitudes towards poli ce weaponry, but specific experi ential variables had a significant eVect, notably respondents' personal experi ence of responsible or irresponsible behavi our by the poli ce. For those partici pants who were themsel ves victims of crime, such experiences were i mportant in al tering their views of the poli ce, whether positively or negativel y. Trust i n the police appeared to be a key mediating influence upon attitudes towards poli ce weaponry. Conclusions. Experiential variables relating to perceptions of pol ice behaviour and to actual contacts with police officers appear to be influential in forming attitudes towards poli ce weaponry in England. The perceived character of response, assistance and support received from the pol ice foll owing criminal vi ctimization were found to be significant predictors of favourable or unfavour-able attitudes towards pol ice weaponry, possibly through the mediation of increasing or decreasing trust in the police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reaction of residents of a small district in the Northeast of England to the perceived compromising of existing community boundaries was examined in the light of Tajfel and Turner's (1986) social identity theory. Social identity theory was found to provide a useful framework for explaining specific psychological reactions of residents and spokespersons to the perception of ingroup status inferiority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]