| Summary: | M.A. === Ethnic conflict, a reality throughout the world, demands strong action and firm control from the Military and Police Forces of affected societies. It is important that the Police, in any given society, should act impartially and objectively in the execution of their duties. Policing of ethnic groups in conflict should therefore take place without differentiating between population groups. This study investigates the attitudes of black policemen towards ethnic violence as related to (i) factors like ethnic identification, loyalty to the South African Police and their experience of violence and (ii) certain biographic factors namely mother tongue, age, academic qualifications, rank, division, area stationed, years of service, marital status, children, school going children, place of residence, acknowledgement of traditional tribal heads and period of participation in the study. In this study empirical research was conducted in which a questionnaire was completed by a sample of 298 black policemen. The questionnaire consisted of questions on the biographical background of black policemen as well as questions measuring their attitude towards ethnic violence, their ethnic identification, their loyalty to the South African Police and their experience of violence. To measure the above-mentioned factors, four scales were developed by means of factor analysis and item analysis. Ethnic identification, loyalty to the South African Police, experience of violence and attitude towards ethnic violence were further analysed in terms of the biographical background of policemen, making use of one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe's paired comparisons, Hotelling T2 and t tests and Pearsons correlation. It was found that black policemen who are South Sotho speaking identify stronger with their ethnic group than Zulu speaking policemen. It was further found that black policemen who joined the South African Police with service for their country as motive, who acknowledge traditional tribal heads and experienced verbal insult and intimidation in a high degree, have a strong identification with their ethnic group. With regard to loyalty to the South African Police, it was found that black policemen stationed in Soweto, are more loyal to the police than policemen stationed on the East Rand. It was also found that black policemen who joined the South African Police with service for their country as motive, and who are older, are more loyal to the police. Regarding black policemen's experience of violence, it was found that policemen who are stationed on the East Rand experienced more violence than black policemen stationed in Soweto. It was also found that black policemen who experience a high degree of verbal insult and intimidation, and those who participated in the study just after the election have experienced a high degree of violence. Regarding the intercorrelation between the different scales, it was found that the more black policemen identify with their ethnic group, the more they experience violence and the more they approve of ethnic violence. It was further found that black policemen who approve of ethnic violence, identify stronger with their ethnic group, are less loyal to the South African Police and experience violence to a higher degree.
|
|---|
