Gender attitudes of police officers: Selection and socialization mechanisms in the life course

Police officers may have attitudes that are more traditional than the general public, perhaps impacted by a unique "working personality", but recent evidence suggests that more conservative individuals may be drawn to policing (LeCount, 2017). In this article I draw from the life course perspective to evaluate the degree to which two mechanisms explain police gender attitudes, selection into policing or socialization while on the job. I examine gender attitudes relating to division of labor in the home and women's disadvantage in the labor market, comparing police to non-police using the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972. Following employment patterns for respondents at the start of their policing career (age 18 to age 25), I find more support for occupational socialization than selection. A fixed effects model shows that men who became police officers shifted to become more traditional in their gender attitudes in comparison to other men while the average person in the cohort became less traditional. Women who entered policing in the mid-1970s were less traditional than other women and police status was not significantly related to their attitudes. While attitudes do not necessarily predict behavior, the results suggest that experiences in police work can enhance traditional gender attitudes. Policy recommendations are discussed.

The search for attitude-a hidden curriculum assessment from a central European perspective

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the development of the hidden curriculum in the medical education system. It refers to a conglomeration of implicit beliefs, attitudes and forms of conduct that are unwittingly transmitted from one generation of teaching physicians to the next. How can we describe this process, what are the potential positive or negative impacts, and last but not least, how can we measure it?

METHODS

Students of the Medical University of Vienna complete their clinical rotations in Vienna and in other accredited, mostly central European hospitals. They were subsequently invited to evaluate their rotations in an online questionnaire regarding dimensions, such as professionalism, teaching, integration and appreciation.

RESULTS

In total, 133 students participated in this pilot study and the average response rate was 10.1%, similar to evaluations conducted prior to that. Although the evaluation results on average were positive, several experiences of deprecation and less professional conduct were present in each evaluated rotation. Giving the students the opportunity to reflect upon their experiences could be seen as an intervention and investigation at the same time.

CONCLUSIONS

This survey serves as a precursor to a qualitative interview-based study, accompanying the implementation of case-based learning designed by collaborating residents and medical students. The findings of this pilot-study support the necessity of fostering a reflective capacity in the education of medical students, enabling them to speak up and live up to the expected professionalism despite shortcomings within the hidden curriculum.