Police phobia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Police phobia refers to a type of social anxiety in which one has an intense, irrational fear of police officers and/or the police force in general. Most people who fear the police do so because of internal factors, external factors, or both. Internal factors causing police phobia include generalized social anxiety, paranoia, or a simple lack of understanding of the police and the true nature and purpose of the police force. External factors causing police phobia would include altercations with police in the past that may have involved negative or unfair treatment by police personnel, such as coercion, frameup, bad interrogation, unlawful search and seizure, brutality, etc. A person with an outstanding arrest warrant may also have police phobia.

Police phobia is common in nation-states with oppressive regimes, such as North Korea, China and Syria, where rights and civil liberties are strictly limited. A secret police force frequently generates fear and anxiety among many citizens within an oppressive nation-state, as the citizens fear torture and other harsh penalites. Even within free, democratic nation-states, such as the United States and Great Britain, fear of police is common in cities and towns having police departments with a history of police corruption, police brutality, discrimination and organized scandal against citizens.

People having police phobia are often ruluctant to venture in certain public places, such as the government sector of a city's downtown area, where large numbers of law enforcement officers are present. Oftentimes persons with police phobia may avoid places or events where crowds gather, such as shopping malls, parades and sporting events, knowing the police would be present among the crowds. They often remain at home, never venturing out, during night time hours and on holidays, which are times when the police force is especially active. Such people also attempt to maintain strict obedience to federal, state and local laws when out in public, hoping they will not draw the attention of the police. In addition, a person with police phobia may be extremely reluctant to contact the police when emergencies arise.

Alternate terms used to describe an intense, irrational fear of police include policophobia and astynomiophobia, although these terms are rarely used by psychologists and psychiatrists in their respective fields.