摘要
As the saying goes, ＂Perception is reality＂. To many minorities, the police are prejudiced toward people of color and unconcerned about providing services to their communities. From the police＇s perception minority neighborhoods are ambivalent and non-supportive of police efforts to combat crime in their community. As police community-relations have appeared to decline over the past years and tensions have exacerbated between the two; which perception is more accurate？ Perhaps there is more than one answer with both sides needing to form a partnership and find ways to collaborate on strategies for a changing society. Negative perceptions threaten police and community relations and impact efforts to work together. Understanding both the cultural and ethnic differences of a community as well as the importance of discussing the implementation of crime control strategies are all elements, which can help change these negative perceptions. Police realize they alone cannot control crime and must truly enlist the aid of minority communities in this endeavor. As our society changes one thing is for certain, there are more questions than answers and we have to find a way to work together in order to be able to successfully meet the challenges that lie ahead. This literature review was conducted from two different perspectives-the perception of police and the community and the perceptions of community and the police.
