The Impact of Higher Education of Police Officer Attitudes toward Abuse of Authority

摘要

An ongoing debate in the field of policing is the educational requirements that police officers should have prior to entering policing. Some feel that it is necessary for police officers to have a four-year degree in hand to expand their problem solving abilities and increase levels of cultural sensitivity; while others feel that the requirement is unnecessary. This same debate is nothing new in the field and has been expressed by policing scholars as early as August Vollmer in the early 1900s, the President's Crime Commission in the 1960s, and even as recently as 2004 by the National Research Council. The belief is that officers with a college degree will be less likely to engage in the kinds of problematic (e.g. abuse of authority) behaviors largely responsible for the rifts between the police and the communities they serve.