A Comparison of the Value Structure of British and U.S. Police

Abstract

THE question as to whether one can identify a distinct police personality with characteristic 1 attitudes, values, or traits has resulted in many, been hypothesized. Lefkowitz (1975), in his excellent review, noted that while &dquo;suspicious&dquo; has been identified by at least six studies, and &dquo;cynical&dquo; has shown some consistency, many other qualities such as &dquo;authoritarian&dquo; and &dquo;dogmatic&dquo; have not held up as well. He cited some of the problems as due to different measuring instruments, inadequate controls, especially with regard to socio-economic status and education, and varying degrees of police service among the samples studied.Related to the problem of inconsistency in results is whether the characteristics found are due to the kind of men attracted to police work, or whether, instead, they result from the occupational stresses of the work itself. Thus, different results might be expected depending upon the tenure of officers studied, or even the kinds of experience confronted by them in the course of their work. Singleton (1976), for example, found a significantly greater degree of suspiciousness and paranoid feelings among officers who had experienced traumatic and aggressive citizen-encounters in their previous year of duty when compared with officers with no such reported experience. One problem in interpreting his results was in deciding whether his data reflected a cause or an effect. Rokeach et al. (1971) concluded that the more &dquo;detached&dquo; and &dquo;harder&dquo; values in his sample of state police represented a self-selection factor. However, the nature of his cross-sectional grouping, in which all officers with less than three years of service were pooled together for purposes of analysis, weakens this conclusion. Teahan (1975) discovered in his longitudinal study of urban police that major shifts in these same values seem to take place even during the first thirteen weeks of training, and that the most crucial period of change is during the first eighteen months of duty.In the present study, we have examined the value structure of British constables with varying degrees of police experience. Since the crime rate in England is almost negligible in comparison to that found in a typical U.S. city, we would expect that police work itself might have less of an impact upon constables. Although no longitudinal data was collected, as had been done previously with a U.S. sample, it was still possible to compare constables with less than three months of duty with others of varying experience, thus allowing for some conclusions to be drawn regarding the early effects of police work in England on the value structure of these officers. In addition, we wished to see whether differences between British constables and their U.S. counterparts would appear and whether these would be especially pronounced when constables were compared with inexperienced U.S. officers. PROCEDURE SUBJECTS: Ninety-eight white male patrolmen from a large U.S. industrial city were at University ...

The Three Rs of Academic Achievement: Reading, ’Riting, and Racism

“…There are at least two empirical studies that speak to the power of socialization within HE jobs. Carlson and Sutton (1974) found that police recruits became more authoritarian as they progressed through the police academy, and Teahan (1975) found that White police officers became more anti-Black as they proceeded through the police academy (for other socialization effects of police work, see Butler& Cochrane, 1977;Carlson & Sutton, 1975;Hazer & Alvares, 1981;Lefkowitz, 1977;McGahan, 1984;Sutton & Carlson, 1977;Teahan, Adams, & Podany, 1980;Van-Maanen, 1975). Similarly, there are two empirical studies that are consistent with thenotionthatbrutalandracist behavior on the part of incumbents of HE roles will actually be rewarded.…”

The Three Rs of Academic Achievement: Reading, ’Riting, and Racism

“…There are at least two empirical studies that speak to the power of socialization within HE jobs. Carlson and Sutton (1974) found that police recruits became more authoritarian as they progressed through the police academy, and Teahan (1975) found that White police officers became more anti-Black as they proceeded through the police academy (for other socialization effects of police work, see Butler & Cochrane, 1977;Carlson & Sutton, 1975;Hazer & Alvares, 1981;Lefkowitz, 1977;McGahan, 1984;Sutton & Carlson, 1977;Teahan, Adams, & Podany, 1980;Van-Maanen, 1975 In this study, we will further explore the issue of congr uen ce bet ween a nt iega lit aria n beliefs an d HE/HA-social roles within the university environment.…”