The Effects of Different Police Roles on Attitudes and Values

Abstract
Role demands have been found to be extremely important in the formation of attitudes and values. Attitudes and values of police and nonpolice concerning authoritarianism, punitiveness, and ethics were examined. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) Authoritarianism and punitiveness will differ as a function of particular police roles, (b) Police and police science majors will have more punitive attitudes than nonpolice. (c) Police will have a greater commitment to the ethics of social responsibility, while nonpolice will have a greater commitment to the ethics of personal conscience. Six groups of Ss were examined: a nonpolice control group, police science majors, recruits at a police academy, jail personnel, patrol bureau personnel, and detective bureau personnel. Ss were 198 males, including 127 police Ss and 71 nonpolice Ss. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance supported all three hypotheses.

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