St. Louis Police Recruits in the Twentieth Century
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9680676 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eugene J Watts (The Ohio State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 77-114 |
| Publication date | 1981-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Criminology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0011-1384 • E-ISSN: 1745-9125 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1981.tb00405.x |
| OpenAlex | W2130950260 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 5 |
Police consultants throughout the twentieth century have advocated improvement in recruitment as a key component of their campaign for police “professionalization.” Not until after World War II, however, did most major urban police forces substantially alter entrance standards. Unfortunately, scholars have not undertaken the research necessary to document the diachronic dimension of police recruitment, particularly in light of these changes in requirements. Quantitative analysis of the social backgrounds of officers in the St. Louis Police Department, which is widely considered to be one of the nation's most professional forces, provides the first accurate answer to the question of who policed the city. This examination reveals marked shifts in the education, ethnic identification (including race), military experience, age, and length of residence of recruits, but that modifications of entrance standards were clearly responsible only for changes regarding the latter two factors. More important is the finding that such developments did not disturb the great continuity in the social background of St. Louis police recruits. Thus officers in 1970, like their predecessors at the turn of the century, were predominantly married men from blue collar backgrounds, with checkered occupational histories and a high proportion of prior unemployment and incidence of previous arrests
Criminology · Economic growth · Ethnic group · Police department · Political science · Professionalization · Residence · Sociology · Unemployment · American History and Culture · Demography · Gender Studies · Gun Ownership and Violence Research · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1987 - 2020 (34) |
| Highly cited | No |