Examining a Ferguson Effect on College Students’ Motivation to Become Police Officers

Abstract

The current study examines the impact of the Ferguson Effect and related public scrutiny on college students’ motivation to become police officers. Using data from 654 students located at two US universities with over 20,000 students, the results indicate that students’ who perceived that officer motivation and dangerousness has been affected by negative media scrutiny had significantly higher log-odds of strongly agreeing that such scrutiny has negatively impacted their trajectory to work in the police profession and had higher log-odds of strongly agreeing that it has made them apprehensive about applying for police positions in comparison to the reference category. The current study highlights how the negative attention directed towards law enforcement is adversely influencing college students’ motivation to enter the police profession. Police departments must make a concerted effort to mitigate such negative scrutiny in order to ensure a strong candidate pool for prospective police officers.

Keywords:

• Ferguson effect
• motivational factors
• college students
• police profession
• prospective officers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Dr. Clayton Peoples, who is the director of the School of Social Research and Justice Studies at UNR, for his support of this project.

Notes

1 This is not an exhaustive list of black citizens killed by police during these years, nor does the list encompass all of the protests and demonstrations by Black Lives Matter during this time.

2 https://www.justice.gov/crt/case/united-states-v-city-ferguson.

3 With the exception of Meagher and Yentes’ (1986) research, it should be noted that research in the 21^st century has also diverged from previous studies in its ability to examine how motivational factors differ between genders and various races/ethnicities. In general, the research suggests that men and women are motivated to become police officers for similar reasons (Meagher & Yentes, 1986; Raganella & White, 2004; Todak, 2017; White et al., 2010). Similarly, motivational factors do not significantly differ based on race/ethnicity (Foley et al., 2008; Raganella & White, 2004; White et al., 2010).

4 An additive scale was not created for the dependent variables because it would have only consisted of two items. Research suggests that two-item scales used to identify an underlying construct may be problematic for many reasons (Eisinga, Te Grotenhuis, & Pelzer, 2013; Emons, Sijtsma, & Meijer, 2007; Little, Lindenberger, & Nesselroade, 1999; Marsh, Hau, Balla, & Grayson, 1998). For those reasons, the authors relied on multinomial logistic regression to examine two different dependent variables.

5 In the survey, students were asked to indicate whether they were a criminal justice major (1 = Yes, 0 = No). This question was not used as a control variable because the number of non-criminal-justice majors included in the sample was too small. Although major may influence college students’ perceptions of the police, views of police motivation (r = –0.02) and dangerousness (r = –0.06) were weakly related to being a criminal justice major at the bivariate level.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Weston J Morrow

Weston J. Morrow is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at University of Nevada, Reno. He earned a B.S. in Social Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; an M.S. in criminal justice from California State University, Long Beach; and a Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University. He has conducted research on the Fourth Amendment, police use of force, courts and sentencing, and juvenile justice. Dr. Morrow's work has appeared in the American Journal of Criminal Law, Criminal Justice Studies, the Criminal Law Bulletin, the Journal of Crime and Justice, Justice Policy Journal, Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, and Police Quarterly.

Samuel G Vickovic

Samuel G. Vickovic is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management at California State University, Long Beach. He earned a PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Arizona State University in 2015. He has conducted research concerning media depictions of medical marijuana, media depictions of correctional officers, correctional officer organizational attitudes, and sentencing disparities. His current research interests include correctional officers and the intersection of criminal justice systems, media, and popular culture.

Lisa M Dario

Lisa M. Dario is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida Atlantic University. Her current research includes police legitimacy perceptions, use of force, and problem-oriented policing. Her recent work has been published in Justice Quarterly, the Journal of Experimental Criminology, and Criminal Justice and Behavior.

John A Shjarback

John A. Shjarback is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law and Justice Studies at Rowan University. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Arizona State University. His research interests center on policing, specifically environmental and organizational influences on discretionary officer behavior and current issues and trends. His recent work has been featured in Crime and Delinquency, Journal of Criminal Justice, Criminology & Public Policy, and Police Quarterly.