Turkish Police Perception on Violence

Abstract

In the study, the violence perception of police officers in the Turkish Police Organisation is analysed. The theses of the study are the results of interviews, observations and questionnaires applied to a sample group including 707 police officers. The outcomes of the subject are supposed to give some outstanding clues for analysing the perception of violence. For example, being subject to violence during their childhood has many ties in their violence to their own children and their view of physical violence emerging in their occupational life and that unfolds many remarkable data related to these issues. In addition,to social and political systems of the countries, the socio-cultural structures and visions have direct relations with the attitudes and behaviours on the police. Therefore, the image of the police that made by themselves is of crucial importance. The violent behaviours dependent on some perceptions directly affect the image of police. In this perspective, our survey brings some noticeable conclusions. Finally, it can be stated that according to the perception of violence which is effective in their images, an important part of police officers working in Turkish Police Organisation are violence prone.