Predicting Police Recruits Cynicism Development & Growth

• In Event: Posters II

Abstract

Since its beginning roots, policing has gone through extensive phases in the United States with an attempt to professionalize itself. Today more than ever, the public demands a police force that is respectful, fair, proactive, crime-fighting and responsive to their needs. At the same time, police officers are placed in very difficult situations—susceptible to dangers, public hostility, and at times public disrespect. The literature claims that very early on police turn to cynicism as a survival tool to help balance the demands and conditions of their environments/ social structures and the reality of their work. This poster will add to the work of Niederhoffer (1967), mainly by looking at factors such as (age, race, gender, education levels, agency dynamics) that may increase or decrease cynicism development and growth over time. Police recruit data from five police departments is utilized to examine these effects by applying a latent growth curve model, observing three different time points.

Author

• Georgina Enciso, University of Illinois at Chicago