Icelandic Police Students' Attitudes Towards Non-Legalistic Police Practice Before and After Educational Reform

• In Event: POL Panel 16. The promise and impact of changes to police education

Abstract

A classic theme in police research is the tension between legalistic and autonomous perspectives on police practice. With the explicit aim to educate the “long arm of the law,” the purpose of basic police education is to foster a legalistic perspective on police work among prospective police officers. However, previous research findings suggest that prospective police officers tend to adopt a more autonomous perspective on police practice during field training and, later, on the job. Moreover, one of the underlying assumptions of moving police education to the university level is that the critical reflective practice fostered by higher education should help mitigate non-legalistic police practice among police graduates. This study tests this assumption by examining Icelandic police students’ attitudes towards non-legalistic police practice before and after Iceland’s 2016 education reform (when basic police education was moved to the university level). The study uses survey data from the Recruitment, Education, and Careers in the Police project (RECPOL) and the sample includes responses from incoming and graduating police students from the Icelandic Police Academy (2011-2015, N=182) and the University of Akureyri (2017-2023; N=611). The findings will be discussed in the context of academization of police education, police professionalization, and policymaking.

Authors

• Guðmundur Oddsson, University of Akureyri

• Olafur Orn Bragason, University of Iceland/National Police/UNAK