NCJ Number
133898
Journal
Canadian Police College Journal Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Dated: (1991) Pages: 257-273
Date Published
1991
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Despite the disagreement with respect to the benefits of educating police officers, recent recruitment practices of many police forces have increasingly been favoring the better educated.
Abstract
Police administrators have long been trying to improve the social status of law enforcement through education so that the police may achieve professional standing. Among the important ramifications of increasing educational standards is the effect such a policy change has on serving police officers. A negative consequence may be violation of expectation and confusion and resentment among the present and incoming personnel. The problem to be addressed, therefore, concerns the way in which individual police officers perceive the value of university education to their force, to themselves, and to their fellow officers. Evidence is provided that education is related to attitudes toward university education for policing -- that those who do not have any university education perceive it as having little value for a variety of police functions, whereas university graduates have more positive views of the benefits of education. 55 references