Crime Prevention, Crime Repression, and Policing: Attitudes of Police Recruits Towards Their Role in Crime Control

Alain, Marc; Baril, Chantal

doi:10.1080/01924036.2005.9678737

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…For obvious reasons, important aspects for successful policing have been intensively investigated, but often from either an organisational or societal perspective (Frydl and Skogan 2004). Views of recruits have been rarely addressed, and generally in studies limited to one country or organisation (Alain and Baril 2005, Meadows 1985, Phillips 2015, Van Maanen 1975. For instance, although it has been established that communication skills and empathy are highly important for police officers, it is not clear if this is known or accepted by people who aim to become police officers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

European police recruits’ views on ideal personal characteristics of a police officer

Inzunza

Wikström

2019

Policing and Society

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As societies are becoming more heterogeneous and complex, the role of the police is becoming more demanding. To fulfil this role, police officers need several widely recognised skills and personal qualities, but less is known about how they are valued by police recruits. Thus, we have examined views of police recruits in six European countries on three competencies or characteristics of known importance for police work: knowledge, leadership, and the ability to form good relations with citizens. We have also explored variations in views of recruits in different organisations and changes in their views during their training. For these purposes, we used survey data collected in the RECPOL project. Since the data were collected from different populations and at different times, the analysis is based on measurement invariance methodology, and one of the aims was to highlight the importance of rigorous appraisal of the quality and comparability of similar survey data using such methods. The results reveal both differences and similarities in views of recruits in the surveyed countries and changes during training. Police culture appears to be a significant factor, as more items in the applied instrument could be validly used in comparisons of recruits in organisations with similar police traditions. The results also showed interesting contrasts, e.g. new recruits in Sweden rated good relations with citizens more highly than recruits in organisations with a more military history, but this pattern changed during training, presumably due to influences of the recruitment process, training and culture within the organisations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

European police recruits’ views on ideal personal characteristics of a police officer

Inzunza

Wikström

2019

Policing and Society

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“…We showed earlier (Alain and Baril, 2005a; Alain and Grégoire, 2008) that the competitiveness and high intensity of initial police training in Quebec occurs in response to demands made by the police organizations. Since the students at the Police academy have not been hired during the initial training sequence (three years of college plus 15 weeks of course specifically designed for future officers), students are responsible for most initial training expenses.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Undertaking field research in the area of employer‐employee discussion and negotiation strategies is challenging (Rigby, 2002), whether it is done through considering written agreements or by looking at the perceptions and discourse of the actors involved. This challenge is even greater in the field of security and police management, a universe that has traditionally been impervious to outside inquiry (Chauvenet and Orlic, 1985; Alain and Baril, 2005a, b) and where there is increasing competition between the private and the public sector. Since we were able to gain access to all written work conventions pertaining to both the police and the private sector, we began our research by looking at these official documents to determine whether there were clauses pertaining to continuous training and education.…”

Section: Field Approach and Research Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is no longer the case. An economic crisis during the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s affected the police as well as most other public services and led to salary increases being cut to the bare minimum (Alain, 2004; Alain and Baril, 2005a; Alain and Grégoire, 2008). Unions and employee representatives gradually began to consider mandatory continuous training as something to be discussed during negotiations, rather than remaining the prerogative of the employer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Continuous training as a subject of negotiations in public and private policing

Alain

Crête

2009

Policing

Self Cite

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PurposeThis paper aims to explore and document how the question of continuous training/education is presently being dealt with in the area of public services and private security providers and trying to assess best and wrong practices of discussions and negotiations regarding this same question.Design/methodology/approachThis research relied on content analysis of all 65 working agreements that have been negotiated in both the police and the private sectors in the province of Quebec within the last few years. In‐depth interviews were also conducted among 91 representatives of both employers and employees in order to explore more deeply the different contexts into which negotiations and discussions took place about the question of continuous training/education provisions.FindingsWhat clearly emerged from interviews conducted with police organization representatives, employees and employers alike, is that a confrontational attitude rather than a more collaborative standpoint is the norm in negotiations. There is, however, one element on which both parties agree – the idea that training must be of immediate relevance to the job. In this respect, police employers and employees are often united in their resistance to new and higher training standards imposed by governments and public sector professionals, who are often suspected of not knowing much about the “reality” of police work. Field interviews revealed that negotiations generally favor employers, while employee unions, when present, do their best to defend previously gained conditions, particularly those pertaining to seniority in determining who is eligible for training.Practical implicationsHaving documented the limitations imposed by the confrontational approach that is still being used in negotiations and discussions on the object of continuous training/education in the area of both public and private security sectors, we propose, as a final remark, that both employers and employees should envision the possibility of exploring new discussion and negotiation modalities which rest on a more consensual approach. This could help to give training and education its true value in this sector in an ever changing and globalizing economy.Originality/valueThis exploratory study is the first one being conducted in Quebec's security sector about a question that is at the heart of the competition capacity in a fast changing economy; lessons learned through this research should help this sector to better its negotiation practices regarding training/education as well as other crucial elements of its social mandate.

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“…C'est qu'il nous faut démontrer, en fait, jusqu'à quel point les réponses qui nous sont fournies par les participants refl ètent bel et bien les attitudes et positions de l'ensemble des sujets de départ (les répondants de la toute première administration du questionnaire) et ne sont pas, en d'autres termes, uniquement le refl et des attitudes de ceux et celles qui acceptent de répondre au questionnaire. C'est en utilisant deux moyens différents expliqués dans deux contributions précédentes consacrées à l'analyse des réponses de la seconde phase de l'étude (Alain & Baril, 2005a, 2005b que nous sommes en mesure de prétendre à la validité globale des résultats. Dans le cas de l'enquête réalisée en France, de telles précautions se seraient avérées bien inutiles.…”

Section: Contextes De Passation Des Questionnaires Des Deux Enquêtes unclassified

Regards croisés sur les processus de construction d’une identité professionnelle policière en France et au Québec

Alain

Rousseau

Desrosiers

2013

crimino

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Résumé de l'article La question du réaménagement des représentations qu'un apprenant se fait du métier qu'il a choisi fait maintenant partie d'un corpus de connaissances connu sous l'appellation de la socialisation professionnelle. De manière générale, c'est a posteriori que ces réaménagements, leur amplitude et leur forme sont étudiés, en analysant les discours des représentants d'une ou de plusieurs professions. Il est, en effet, beaucoup plus rare de documenter ces mêmes réaménagements en temps réel, soit en suivant les parcours de socialisation au moment où ils se déroulent. Il est encore plus rare, également, qu'un dispositif de recherche longitudinal sur cohorte fasse l'objet d'une réplication dans un autre contexte. C'est cet exercice qui a été réalisé à dix ans d'intervalle en France, lieu de l'enquête originale, et au Québec par la suite. S'il ne nous appartient pas comme tel de tenter la comparaison des contextes français et québécois du métier de policier, en revanche, le fait de disposer ainsi de deux corpus de données d'enquête de socialisation professionnelle distincts nous donnera l'occasion de faire émerger les processus génériques communs de ce qui semble être plus spécifique à l'un ou l'autre des deux contextes.

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Crime Prevention, Crime Repression, and Policing: Attitudes of Police Recruits Towards Their Role in Crime Control

Cited by 21 publications

References 7 publications

European police recruits’ views on ideal personal characteristics of a police officer

European police recruits’ views on ideal personal characteristics of a police officer

Continuous training as a subject of negotiations in public and private policing

Regards croisés sur les processus de construction d’une identité professionnelle policière en France et au Québec

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