NCJ Number
84717
Journal
Bramshill Journal Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Dated: (Winter 1981-82) Pages: 23-29
Date Published
1981
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Research tentatively suggests that the police attract and then mold personalities of a particular type and that the expression of positive traits in policing is amenable to training and positive, aggressive supervision.
Abstract
The nature of policing or the public image of it possibly attracts those who share common personality attributes. Further, the extended screening process to establish proof of good character results in the selection of certain types of persons. Also, considerable data supports the notion that most police officers are recruited from the white working class or lower middle class and that this segment of society tends to produce personality characteristics, norms, and values similar to those of police. American research in particular has indicated that the danger police face has tended to produce officers who demonstrate toughness and assertiveness. Confrontation with danger is also seen to nourish suspicion. The officer, who must often react quickly in dangerous situations, retreats into the convenient device of stereotyping suspects. Prejudices are formed from these stereotypes. Further, contact with danger and a hostile public fosters the development of tight peer group relations among police that tends to produce further alienation from the public. Police training and supervision on the job should make every effort to combat conditioning that produces destructive prejudices and alienation from the public. When left to their own devices of coping with the circumstances and pressures of policing, officers can easily develop negative behavior patterns. Twenty-six references are listed.