Police, culture, and ethics: toward an understanding and expansion of police culture and ethical research

Abstract

<p>The goal of this research is to integrate knowledge within police culture and ethics research. It is hoped to integrate a consistent pattern of ethical responses, according to officer typology. An expanded understanding of how factors, such as stress, job satisfaction, media portrayals, public perceptions, police socialization, and police culture, may have on ethics is intended. The following research questions were developed: Is variation found within officer responses to police culture variables? Is support found for Paoline's (2004) categorization of officers? Is evidence found of variation within officer responses to ethical prompts? Can a distinguishable trend be found for typological responses to ethical concerns? Variation was found in both officer typological and ethical responses. However, a distinguishable trend within ethical responses could not be demonstrated by this research to support Paoline's (2004) typologies.</p>