|
  
|
|
Young
People's Attitudes towards the PSNI, Policing Board and the
Police Ombudsman
|
This project
involves quantitative and qualitative research on the attitudes
and experiences of young men and women aged between 16 and 20 towards
the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Policing Board and the
Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. The main issues it will address
are:
- The attitudes
of young people to the PSNI, their experiences of that service and
the scale and nature of problems that they have experienced in interacting
with the PSNI.
- The attitudes
of young people to the office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern
Ireland: their knowledge of that office, its work and responsibilities;
their experience of making complaints about the police and any changes
that they feel could be made to the system of reporting or processing
complaints.
- Knowledge of
and attitudes towards the Policing Board.
Particular questions
and areas of interest that will be addressed include the following:
- What are the
current experiences of young people in interacting with the police
service?
- What type, range
and scale of unacceptable behaviour do they experience?
- How can the
PSNI be made more 'user friendly' to young people?
- Do young people
know how to make complaints and whom they should complain to?
- How accessible
do they feel the current complaints process is?
- How accountable
are the police?
- What is the
level of knowledge and experience of the Ombudsman's office?
- What is the
experience of making complaints, either to the police or to the Ombudsman's
office?
- What are the
factors that increase or reduce likelihood of young people making
complaints?
- How can the
system be made more accessible and user friendly?
- What range of
experiences is there and what factors influence the diversity of responses:
regional, gender, class and community background?
The
research will be both qualitative and quantitative in nature. A number
of focus groups will be convened through our existing contacts with
youth groups, schools, young offenders institutions, Further Education
Colleges, universities and other bodies working with young people. We
also intend to convene focus groups with young people from minority
ethnic and the gay and lesbian communities.
The
quantitative dimension to the research will be in two parts.
- All participants
in the focus groups will be asked to self-complete a brief questionnaire,
which will compliment and extend the information gathered in the discussions.
This will give a sample of around 200 people.
- The same questionnaire
will be used alone to gather the views of a much broader range of
young people. We will aim to survey a sample of up to 1000 individuals
through a broad and representative range of establishments including
youth groups, secondary schools, Further and Higher Education Colleges,
training centres and the universities.
The
research is funded by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and
the Policing Board.
|
