Police officers’ attitudes about drug enforcement in Thailand

Abstract

Examines the attitudes of Thai police regarding drug enforcement in the following areas: drug laws, prosecutors and judges. Assesses the accuracy of officers’ knowledge of drug laws. Explores the effects of 16 independent variables, derived from personal background, institutional support and drug offense information, on officers’ attitudes and knowledge. Using data collected from a survey of 672 Thai police officers, employs ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to examine the aggregate effect of independent variables on officers’ attitudes about drug enforcement and to identify the most significant independent variables. Finds that the officers have positive attitudes regarding drug enforcement but are not knowledgeable about the drug laws, and that several institutional variables have a positive significant influence on these attitudes.