Helping Behavior in Police Officers and Reasons for Choice of Career

Recent research has indicated that many police officers are motivated in their choice of law enforcement as a career by the opportunity to help others (Lester, et al., 1980). To explore helping disposition in police officers, 33 male state police officers (M,,, = 32.2, SD = 4.0) and 53 municipal police officers (M,,, = 34.5, SD = 5.6) were given anonymously the Severy (1975) Helping Dispositions Scale and a list of 15 reasons for becoming a police officer (Lester, 1983). The reasons form three clusters: pay and security, power and status, and service. Scores on the Helping Dispositions Scale were not related to being a state versus a municipal police officer, to rank (detective versus patrolman or trooper), years of police work, or size of the police department. Older police officers obtained a lower Helping Disposition score ( r = -0.20, n = 86, one-tailed p < 0.05 ). Police officers obtained a higher Helping Disposition score if they more highly rated the reasons for becoming police officers of power and status ( 7 = 0.23, p < 0.05) and of service ( r = 0.29, p < 0.01), but not of pay and security ( r = 0.01) .2 These associations were stronger for the state police officers than for the municipal police officers. A Helping Disposition was related to the reasons for becoming a police officer

Applied Psychology · Gun Ownership and Violence Research · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology