Higher Education, College Degree Major, and Police Occupational Attitudes

Paoline, Eugene A.; Terrill, William; Rossler, Michael T.

doi:10.1080/10511253.2014.923010

Cited by 77 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…This scale contains three items tapping into respondents’ enjoyment of their job, willingness to consider another job, and generally how much they like their job (α = .642). The survey items used here were extracted from Brayfield and Rothe (1951), representing a facet-free job satisfaction assessment of enjoyment and commitment (Dantzker, 1997; Dantzker & Kubin, 1998; Paoline et al., 2015; Terrill & Paoline, 2015) versus a measure comprising specific details (e.g., pay, benefits). The scale ranged from 3 to 12 and had a mean of 9.23 ( Mdn = 10), suggesting most officers viewed their job in a positive light.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The greatest empirical attention has focused on the relevance of demographic and occupational characteristics on officer job satisfaction. Unfortunately, across four decades of research, examinations of factors such as officer sex, race, age, education, marital status, military service, experience, assignment, and rank have produced very little in the way of consistent or robust statistical effects (Brady & King, 2018; Buzawa, 1984; Dantzker, 1994a, 1994b; Dantzker & Kubin, 1998; Forsyth & Copes, 1994; Greene, 1989; Johnson, 2012; Miller, Mire, & Kim, 2009; Paoline, Terrill, & Rossler, 2015; Rhodes, 2015; Zhao, Thurman, & He, 1999).…”

Section: Police Officers’ Job Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, it is evident that researchers are just beginning to scratch the surface in determining which work-related attitudes to include in analytical models. That is, just as there is not a universally agreed upon measure of job satisfaction (Dantzker, 1993; Paoline et al., 2015; Zhao et al., 1999), perceptions of the work environment cover several features of the police occupation. As such, this area of inquiry is ripe for further empirical examination.…”

Section: Police Officers’ Job Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Empirical Assessment of the Sources of Police Job Satisfaction

Paoline

Gau

2019

Police Quarterly

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Dissatisfied workers are at risk for negative occupational behaviors such as job turnover, poor performance, work avoidance, decreased morale among coworkers, and physical or legal liability. Relying heavily on demographic (e.g., sex, race, education) and occupational (e.g., rank, experience, assignment) explanatory factors, early empirical studies failed to effectively model the statistical correlates of police officer job satisfaction. Recent inquiries have found more success in explaining the variation in job satisfaction by examining a variety of work-related attitudes. The current study adds to this burgeoning area of research by assessing the role of internal and external dimensions of the work environment, as well as views of fairness and effectiveness, on the job satisfaction of police officers. Based on survey data from a midsized municipal police department in Florida, the multivariate analysis reveals a number of successful predictors of job satisfaction, especially for those officers with a street-level assignment. A second analysis, based on qualitative coding of open-ended survey questions, finds differences in positive and negative features of the occupation across varying levels of satisfied and dissatisfied respondents. Implications of these findings for police practitioners and researchers are discussed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Police Officers’ Job Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Police Officers’ Job Satisfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Empirical Assessment of the Sources of Police Job Satisfaction

Paoline

Gau

2019

Police Quarterly

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“…Through the interviews of officers who received education in university and returned to the police force, he observed that they were equipped with skills of critical thinking to 'challenge the status quo' and 'view the world differently' (p. 120). The influence of educational background on police officers' cultural perceptions has received the attention of social scientists who have been interested in such things as, education's impact on police attitudes toward job satisfaction (Johnson, 2012;Paoline et al, 2014), role orientations (Paoline et al, 2000(Paoline et al, , 2014, cynicism (Alpert and Dunham, 1997), and aggressive policing (Carter and Sapp, 1990;Paoline et al, 2000). It could be expected that police officers with tertiary education background would be less inclined to adhere to the traditional police culture than would their less educated counterparts.…”

Section: Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring police role orientations in China: An exploratory study

Chen

2016

International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice

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“…Because of the substantial number of those that enter police work that do not major in criminal justice, it was important to control for the type of college major. Further, students who are CJ majors have also been shown to have differing occupational attitudes from their counterparts once entering a patrol career (Paoline et al, 2015). Finally, military experience was used as a control variable.…”

Section: Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patrol career interest and perceptions of barriers among African-American criminal justice students

Rossler

Scheer

Suttmoeller

2019

PIJPSM

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Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether black and African-American criminal justice students perceive barriers to a police patrol career differently than white students, and whether the perceptions of these barriers impact desire to enter a police patrol career. Design/methodology/approach-The current inquiry uses a self-administered survey of over 630 undergraduate students in criminal justice classes across five public universities. Findings-Findings suggest that African-American students differ significantly from white students in perceived social disapproval of patrol careers, respect for police and perceptions of whether the police engage in racial profiling. These perceptions display a significant indirect relationship indicating lower patrol career interest for black and African-American students compared to all other races. Research limitations/implications-Research limitations of the current inquiry include the lack of a nationally representative sample, the use of four-year university students as a sample to represent the potential police patrol applicant pool, and the use of a survey instrument to gauge respondent beliefs about patrol careers as opposed to actions they would take in pursuit of a police career. Practical implications-Findings from the current inquiry indicate that departments may need to focus more on improving global perceptions of the police and discussing the nature of the career with recruit social support structures. Police recruiters should focus on techniques such as addressing social isolation experienced by the police rather than on decreasing standards for background checks or simply increasing awareness of police careers. Originality/value-The current inquiry is one of the first to explore perceptions of barriers to entering a patrol career among CJ students. It is also among the first to examine the impact these perceptions have on patrol career interest. The findings may also help criminal justice instructors more fully discuss these barriers with students of color.

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Higher Education, College Degree Major, and Police Occupational Attitudes

Cited by 77 publications

References 38 publications

An Empirical Assessment of the Sources of Police Job Satisfaction

An Empirical Assessment of the Sources of Police Job Satisfaction

Measuring police role orientations in China: An exploratory study

Patrol career interest and perceptions of barriers among African-American criminal justice students

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