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THE IMPACT OF HIGHER EDUCATION ON POLICE OFFICER ATTITUDES REGARDING ABUSE OF AUTHORITY

Cody Webb Telep, Master of Arts, 2008

Professor David Weisburd Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice

This study examines whether officers who receive a college education (four-year degree) prior to entry into the police service have attitudes that are less supportive of the abuse of police authority. This research also explores whether level of higher education and the timing of degree completion alter this potential attitudinal impact of a bachelor's degree. Using data from a nationally representative survey sample, I find that officers with a pre-service bachelor's degree hold attitudes that are less supportive of abuse of authority. These effects remain regardless of when officers receive their degree and across varying levels of higher education (i.e. associate's degree, attending some college). Postsecondary education does not have a statistically significant impact on officer ratings of the seriousness of hypothetical abuse of authority scenarios. These findings suggest that higher education has some beneficial impacts for policing, although these benefits are not only associated with completing a four-year degree.

THE IMPACT OF HIGHER EDUCATION ON POLICE OFFICER ATTITUDES REGARDING ABUSE OF AUTHORITY

By

Cody Webb Telep

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2008

Advisory Committee: Professor David Weisburd, Chair Professor Jean M. McGloin Professor Charles F. Wellford

? Copyright by Cody Webb Telep

2008

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the members of my advisory committee, Professor David Weisburd, Professor Jean McGloin, and Professor Charles Wellford, for all of their assistance, suggestions, and feedback. I also want to thank Professor Weisburd for providing me access to the Police Foundation dataset. In addition, I thank Professor Laura Dugan and Professor David Kirk for their help in the early stages of this thesis. Thank you also to R?chael Wyckoff, Melissa Rorie, and Amber Stoesser for their invaluable support throughout the master's process. Finally, I want to thank the South Campus Commons Shop for being a constant source of fountain soda and caffeine.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ v

CHAPTER I: RESEARCH GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ............................................... 1

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE .............................................. 4 Police Abuse of Authority .......................................................................................... 4 The Importance of College Education ........................................................................ 5 College Education and Policing.................................................................................. 9 College Education and Police Use of Force ............................................................. 12 Police Attitudes and Use of Force ............................................................................ 17 Limitations of Prior Research ................................................................................... 22

HYPOTHESES ............................................................................................................. 24

CHAPTER III: DATA AND METHODS ....................................................................... 26 Description of the Data ............................................................................................. 26 Sampling Procedure .................................................................................................. 28

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.................................................................................. 29 Dependent Variables................................................................................................. 29 Main Independent Variable....................................................................................... 37 Control Variables ...................................................................................................... 41 Additional Statistical Procedures.............................................................................. 46

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS............................................................................................... 50

CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION.......................................................................................... 64 Implications for Policy and Practice ......................................................................... 69 Limitations of the Study and Future Research.......................................................... 71 Conclusions............................................................................................................... 74

APPENDICES .................................................................................................................. 75 APPENDIX A: AUTHORITY SCALE QUESTIONS................................................. 75 APPENDIX B: FULL-TEXT OF SCENARIOS .......................................................... 76 APPENDIX C: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS ............................................................ 77 APPENDIX D: MISSING DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................... 80

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 81

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Component loadings for principal components analysis of scenario questions . 35 Table 2: OLS results for testing the impact of an officer earning at least a pre-service bachelor's degree on the authority scale........................................................................... 52 Table 3: OLS results for testing the impact of an officer earning at least a pre-service bachelor's degree on the scenario component .................................................................. 54 Table 4: OLS results for testing the impact of an officer earning at least a bachelor's degree (either pre-service or while an officer) on the authority scale .............................. 56 Table 5: OLS results for testing the impact of an officer earning at least a bachelor's degree (either pre-service or while an officer) on the scenario component...................... 57 Table 6: OLS results for testing the impact of varying pre-service, postsecondary education levels on the authority scale ............................................................................. 59 Table 7: OLS results for testing the impact of various pre-service, postsecondary education levels on the scenario component..................................................................... 60 Table 8: OLS results for testing the impact of various current, postsecondary education levels on the authority scale.............................................................................................. 62 Table 9: OLS results for testing the impact of various current, postsecondary education levels on the scenario component ..................................................................................... 62

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