Social and cultural factors of creating the police image in the minds of students of the Southern regions of Russia

The study reviews the factors of creating the police image in the minds of the youth in the southern regions of Russia which are revealed in the course of a sociological research. Based on an empirical material, the author describes and verifies the following determinants that affect the perception of law enforcement agencies by students: the sources of information on the police and their priority; the nature of police information in various sources; the identification of the police image based on the interaction of students with law enforcement officers or the lack of cooperation between them. In the first place, the young people obtain information that builds the police image in their minds from their relatives and friends. In the second place, they get this information (that is mostly negative or neutral) from TV programs and the Internet. The young people who never interact with the police officers demonstrate the value-based rational perception of the police.