Chinese police cadets’ attitudes toward police roles revisited

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Chinese police cadets’ background, motivations and educational perceptions and their attitudes toward common police roles. Design/methodology/approach – Self-administered questionnaires were collected from 382 Chinese police cadets. Based upon predisposition and socialization theories, personal background, career motivation and attitudes toward education were examined as statistical explanations of cadets’ attitudes toward order maintenance, preventative patrol, law enforcement, and community building as elements of the police role. Findings – Cadets who recognized more value in their practical and academic education also significantly favored the transitional and contemporary police roles (preventative patrol, law enforcement, and community building), which are taught as part of their college curriculum. But educational perceptions had no effect on order maintenance, which is a more historical role, and not emphasized by the police college. Cadets from lower SES backgrounds and those receiving outside influence to select a policing career tended to support traditional police roles whereas cadets with a relative in policing tended to show greater support for contemporary policing roles. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited by being a cross-sectional study of a single police college. Future studies should incorporate a longitudinal element to follow the perceptions of cadets from their school experience into the policing profession and should be conducted in other settings to assess generalizability. Practical implications – The impact of higher education on police cadets appears to be better measured as a function of their perceived importance of education (engagement) rather than measuring their exposure to it. The effectiveness of police training and education may be enhanced by adopting teaching methods that better engage learners. Social implications – Better alignment between police officers’ attitudes toward their roles and duties and contemporary police standards and practices will assure more effective and responsible police action and delivery of police services to the community. Originality/value – This study is among the first to demonstrate that Cadets who hold higher regard for practical and academic education are significantly better aligned to the policing roles emphasized by their educational program.

Work Values of Police Officers and Their Relationship With Job Burnout and Work Engagement

“…We have pointed out that knowledge about individual work values in police officers is insufficient. Past studies mainly focus on work values among early stage career officers (students and cadets) (Hazer and Alvares, 1981; Zedeck et al, 1981; Sundström and Wolming, 2014; Cuvelier et al, 2015; Kohlström et al, 2017). The associations between work values and other work-related aspects have been relatively well-investigated, but little is known about the relationships between work values and job burnout and work engagement in police officers.…”

Socialización organizacional anticipatoria y su relación con las actitudes y conductas de los opositores al Cuerpo Nacional de Policía

“…El presente estudio explora una línea de trabajo que también abordan investigadores de otras latitudes, como las investigaciones con cadetes de la Policía de China, en los que se analizan los antecedentes personales y familiares a la hora de pronosticar la interpretación que los cadetes hacen de sus futuros roles como policías (Cuvelier y Jia, 2015). Esta línea de investigación es muy prometedora, porque la auténtica evaluación del significado de la socialización anticipatoria a través de las actitudes y conductas de los aspirantes se puede hacer a partir de sus percepciones durante el proceso de ingreso o de pre-ingreso, como es el caso del presente trabajo.…”

“…This study explores a line of work also addressed by researchers from other latitudes, such as the investigations with cadets of the Chinese Police, in which the personal and family antecedents are analyzed when forecasting the interpretation that the cadets make of their future roles as police officers (Cuvelier y Jia, 2015). This line of research is very promising because the authentic evaluation of the meaning of anticipatory socialization through the attitudes and behaviors of the aspirants can be made from their perceptions during the admission or pre-admission process, such as the case of the present work.…”

Police Cadets’ Career Plans in China: Testing the Mediation and Moderation Effects of Job Satisfaction

“…Independent variables: Background variables (age, gender, parental education levels, and family income) and six additional independent variables (motivation, attitudes toward policing education, police role orientation, self-efficacy in police work, physical capability, and stress from physical training) were included in the models. Adapting from Kim and Merlo (2010) and Cuvelier et al (2015), 26 motivation items for choosing law enforcement as their career were provided on the survey. Principal components factor analysis identified six distinct components with eigenvalues of 1 or greater.…”

“…Several studies on Chinese police cadets' attitudes toward various topics have been published in English (Cuvelier et al, 2015;Sun et al, 2009Sun et al, , 2010Wu et al, 2009). Interestingly, these studies utilized samples from one same police college.…”