Value changes among St. John's police force

Godsell, Edward Joseph (1973) Value changes among St. John's police force. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (7MB) [English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. (Original Version)

Abstract

The theoretical background for this study was drawn from two areas. Rokeach's theory of values and Stebbins's theory of the definition of the situation. -- The samples were drawn from among the rank and file members of the St. John's Police Force. One sample group consisted of 113 of these constables while the other consisted of 13 constables who had undergone one year of a university police training program. Using the Rokeachean framework two hypotheses were investigated: 1) that the occupation of policemen is a significant socializer of police personnel as reflected by changes in value patterns; 2) that policemen who are enrolled in the university police training program demonstrate significantly different value patterns when compared with the non-university trained group. The findings indicate that the occupation of policeman is not a significant socializer of police personnel since there are no significant differences in the value patterns of policemen regardless of the number of years of service, also there are no significant differences in the value patterns of non-university and university trained policemen and that policemen enrolled in the university training program do not demonstrate significantly different value patterns when compared with their non-university trained counterparts. Drawing on the theoretical and empirical work of Stebbins and others it was concluded that further research in the measurement of police values is necessary before an adequate explanation of value orientation using the Rokeachean theoretical perspective is generated.

Actions (login required)

View Item