RT Article
T1 Producing legalists or dirty Harrys? Police education and field training
JF Policing and society
VO 29
IS 8
SP 936
OP 950
A1 Fekjær, Silje Bringsrud 1974-
A1 Petersson, Otto
A2 Petersson, Otto
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1796809241
AB This paper explores Nordic police students’ attitudes towards non-legalistic police work, based on a cross-national longitudinal survey (N = 1,438). We ask where police recruits in four different Nordic countries are placed along a legalistic-autonomous continuum, and how the exposure to field training affect their acceptance of Dirty Harry-inspired measures. We find quite large differences between student populations. The Swedish police students are the most sceptical towards non-legalistic measures, while the Danes are the most positive. Danish and Icelandic police students gradually come to accept less legalistic procedures while enrolled at the academy, while there are small changes among the Swedish and Norwegian students. Based on a difference-in-difference model, we conclude that being exposed to field training during education makes students more positive towards Dirty Harry-inspired measures, but the effect is small. Country-specific cultural traits, such as views of legality and law abidance, seem to be important.
K1 Police education
K1 Field training
K1 Legalism
K1 Police Culture
DO 10.1080/10439463.2018.1467417