Citation

Clifton S, Torres J, Hawdon J. J. Police Crim. Psychol. 2021; 36(3): 436-449.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11896-020-09427-6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

With research tending to suggest that officers are psychologically oriented to one ideological side of the policing spectrum, the buy-in to a hybrid orientation involving both guardian and warrior orientations among patrol officers remains understudied and undertheorized. The purpose of this pilot study is to test whether the guardian and warrior orientation can coexist by examining whether the warrior orientation is predictive of the guardian orientation among patrol officers. Moreover, tests are conducted to assess whether the coexistence of warrior and guardian orientations varies across White and non-White patrol officers. OLS regressions were conducted utilizing an online sample of patrol officers (n = 882) pooled from nationally recognized website, PoliceOne.com.

RESULTS showed that warrior and guardian orientations are not mutually exclusive. Specifically, officers who are more supportive of aggressively enforcing the law are more supportive of the guardian orientation. However, we find evidence that Hispanic and Latino/a patrol officers are more supportive of this hybrid style of policing than White officers.

Language: en