I have witnessed this in classes when students who work in the criminal justice system caution others about presuming they know something about policing, the courts, or corrections when they have never been a police or corrections officer. Unfortunately, most people will never have the opportunity to be police officers or even to take part in ride-along programs or jail tours. People in everyday life claim to know about many things they have never experienced themselves. While few have ever been to Antarctica, most could describe it. The traditional answer given by sociologists is through socialization .
Individuals interact with others and internalize their experiences and conversations.
When considering things few of us experience directly, media images must of necessity play a very important part. However, for most topics we would be mistaken to conclude that media images alone constitute the whole picture of reality available for anyone. As children, we come to understand the world around us because it is mediated for us by parents, teachers, siblings and peers. For most people the only personal experiences they have with police are in situations such as traffic stops or crowd control at sports contests. The major benefit of community-oriented policing, school resource officers, and programs such as DARE may be that these programs offer people positive experiences with police officers.