Citation

Schulenberg JL, Warren DM. Int. Crim. Justice Rev. 2009; 19(4): 456-477.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Georgia State University, College of Health and Human Sciences, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1057567709340403

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Examinations of specialized police training to handle youth-related incidents are typically approached with researcher-defined concepts rather than key concepts derived from the perceptions of police officers. In response to disagreements in the literature on the usefulness and applicability of training for specific law enforcement functions, this research builds on previous literature by investigating the content and perceived adequacy of specialized training received based on their duty assignment. A grounded theory analysis of 59 interviews conducted in 2002, with 67 Canadian police officers who received training from one of the two training facilities (Justice Institute of British Columbia and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police [RCMP] Depot) finds similarities and differences in the perceptions of training content and adequacy for training, supervisory, and frontline personnel. The differences are most pronounced between the trainers and practitioners than they are between supervisors and frontline officers. Definitions of training adequacy are considerably conditioned by the informal socialization process in the police culture. The data suggest that the academy focus on training generalists has the effect of increasing the impact and importance of informal socialization by field training officers on officer perceptions and procedures for handling youth-related incidents.