The impact of perceived alienation on police officers’ sense of mastery and subsequent motivation for proactive enforcement

This study examines the impact of perceived community alienation on levels of self‐reported mastery and motivation for proactive law enforcement for 272 police officers from 11 law enforcement agencies in a large Southeast Michigan County. Also, it investigates the impact of three highly publicized “anti‐police” judicial verdicts (i.e. Rodney King, Malice Green, and O.J. Simpson) on the predicted alienation‐mastery‐proactive enforcement relationship. Results support the study’s major hypothesis that, as officers’ perceived level of alienation increases, they will report less mastery, and express less willingness for proactive enforcement efforts. One regression model confirms the study’s second hypothesis that the inverse relationship between alienation and motivation for proactive enforcement increases significantly following the “anti‐police” judicial verdicts.