NCJ Number
123736
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: (1990) Pages: 133-146
Date Published
1990
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined the nature and extent of police cynicism in Transkei, a country located in southern Africa. Data were derived from questionnaire responses of 393 of a random sample of 400 Transkei police.
Abstract
Once more the Niederhoffer cynicism scale was shown to be multidimensional, consisting of three independent subscales: POLICE IDEALS, which describes an officer's cynicism toward idealistic notions of police work; FAIR PLAY, a measure that taps the degree to which an officer is cynical about how he or she is treated by the police organization; and PUBLIC, a measure of an officer's cynicism regarding citizens. External validity was assessed by regressing theoretically meaningful predictor variables in each cynicism subscale, using rank as a specification variable. Important differences between commissioned and noncommissioned officers were detected. Finally, the relationship between police cynicism and length of service was modest and linear. The article concludes with a discussion of the relationship between the structure of the Transkei National Police System and the emergence and maintenance of cynicism. 7 tables, 2 appendixes, 37 references. (Author abstract)