Xenophobic attitudes in German police officers

Abstract

In recent years, the proportion of the population with a migrant background has increased in the Federal Republic of Germany. We investigated whether young German police officers hold xenophobic attitudes at the beginning of their bachelor studies and how intercultural competence and communication training modules affect the development of those attitudes. In a 4-year longitudinal study, we assessed police officers’ xenophobic attitudes at the beginning of the first academic year, after basic study (year 1), after main study (year 2), and within the first year of professional practice (year 4). There was a significant decrease in xenophobic attitudes within the 3 years of professional education, followed by a slight increase within the first year of professional practice. Throughout the 4-year period, xenophobic attitudes decreased significantly, pointing to the effectiveness of the training modules integrated into the bachelor program and to the necessity to continue intercultural training within police departments.

(Non-)learning to police: A framework for understanding police learning

“…As such, individuals already have an individually learned conception about policing and underlying democratic ideals. A study from Germany showed that police recruits at the beginning of their career lie in the typical range for xenophobic attitudes compared to their education and age group (Krott et al, 2018). With what individuals have learnt before the doorstep of their police career is embedded within the societal context, like all learning (Illeris, 2007).…”

“…There is a broad consensus that police are in need of good education, leading toward an orientation toward higher education (Paterson, 2011;Frevel, 2018;Huisjes et al, 2018;Rogers and Frevel, 2018). Research has shown the beneficial aspects of this orientation, like a reduction in police culture (Cox and Kirby, 2018), a reduction in use of force (Rydberg and Terrill, 2010;Vespucci, 2020), or a reduction in xenophobic attitudes (Krott et al, 2018). Compared to a more practical-oriented approach to vocational training, higher educational settings focus on the development of broader skills sets such as such as emotional, cognitive, social and moral skills (Blumberg et al, 2019) as well as scientific thinking and reflective practice (Huisjes et al, 2018) in policing.…”