CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESEARCH

Criminal Justice Research

Criminal Justice Research

Introduction

The research is about job satisfaction of the police officers in the police department. According to some researchers, job satisfaction is one of the most popular research topics among scholars in the field of industrial/organizational psychology. Although, a majority of researchers have concurred that when employees have high satisfaction, they will become more motivated and thus exhibit improved job performance, how to motivate them continues to be a major concern. Among the various schools of organizational theories, all put an effort towards improved worker efficiency and effectiveness (McGill, 2001). Scholars in the field of criminal justice have also conducted research on employee job satisfaction that has focused on demographic, personal, and organizational factors. While demographic variables are generally comprised of race, gender, educational level, and rank and length of service, personal factors are most commonly used to represent personality characteristics.

Given that police officers are the first-line officials to carry out government policies, they typically must use persuasive and/or coercive methods to elicit law-abiding behavior from citizens. Therefore, the manner in which police perform their duties influences the human rights and perceptions of citizens who are either for or against the government. In other words, the quality of the police service is one indicator that represents how democratic a country is run.

Thus, continuing attempts have been undertaken and applied to refine the assessment techniques in selecting the best applicants for policing and screening out the least appropriate candidates. In the United States, pre-employment psychological screening tests and procedures are commonly employed in the policing sector of the criminal justice system. Quite the opposite, Taiwan's current recruitment procedure involves only a written test; thus, far, psychological screening or personality traits tests have not been utilized (McGill, 2001).

What is the goal or purpose behind your proposed research?

This study evaluates job or unit assignment within police departments as to its effect on the job satisfaction of the police officers. A Likert scale instrument was used consisting of 20 items designed to measure officer satisfaction with various aspects of their job. Results indicated officers working in specialized units are more satisfied than those working in patrol within law enforcement agencies although it is not found to be statistically significant. Furthermore, none of the demographic variables analyzed are found to have a statistically significant effect on police job satisfaction. Additionally, officers, overall, have high levels of satisfaction with their coworkers, but low satisfaction with promotions and involvement with departmental decisions.

What type of interview structure would you use? Why?

Personality traits, work environment, the job itself, and job satisfaction or dissatisfaction made up the five-part questionnaire that will be measured by a 5-point Likert scale (I- strongly disagree; 2—disagree; 3=neutral; 4=agree; 5=strongly agree). Missing values will be replaced with '3'. Thus, three dimensions of personality will be measured in Part I in which a higher score indicated that the respondent exhibited a certain type of personality. Part II will measure the working environment in which a higher score ...