NCJ Number
176732
Journal
American Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 23 Issue: 1 Dated: Fall 1998 Pages: 19-31
Date Published
1998
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This study examined job satisfaction among police officers and whether there is a difference by gender.
Abstract
The data were obtained from the same data set collected for an earlier general study of police officer job satisfaction (Dantzker, 1994b). The questionnaire from which the reported data were collected was designed to measure perceived satisfaction of police officers from several aspects. It consists of 23 facet- specific and 3 facet-free, job-item questions. For the facet- specific questions, respondents were asked to identify level of satisfaction with specific facets of the job and job environment, such as pay, benefits, supervision, and administration. The facet-free questions allowed respondents to indicate a level of global satisfaction with the job and job environment. These items were written in a Likert-style format in which respondents were asked to identify their level of satisfaction with each item. The questionnaire also included several demographic elements such as gender, age, ethnicity, educational attainment, rank, and years of service. A purposive sample was used. All sworn officers from 14 municipal police agencies in seven States were given the opportunity to participate, providing a purposive sample of 4,712 police officers. The study found that gender does not apparently have much of a relationship to job satisfaction; however, examination of other variables found that satisfaction may have some gender relationship when combined with other variables, such as rank, ethnicity, age, education, and years of experience. Future research should focus on gender in combination with other significant demographic characteristics to determine whether any differences in job satisfaction exist between male and female officers. 3 tables and 35 references