Date

2-7-2024

Department

Helms School of Government

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)

Chair

Jonathon Zemke

Keywords

Police patrol officers, juvenile offenders, perceptions, implications, SPSS

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to add to the dated literature by evaluating police patrol officers' perceptions of juvenile offenders. This study assessed the perceptions of police patrol officers, n=132, from various police departments in the United States. The quantitative design used a survey with responses measured on a four-point Likert scale. SPSS was used to perform a one-way ANOVA to test four hypotheses that predicted differences in individuals' perceptions of juvenile offenders due to their years of experience as a police patrol officer, education level, gender, and age (Hal- Ha4). One-way ANOVA results provided statistical support for only Ha3, which predicted that there is a relationship between police patrol officers' gender and their perceptions of juvenile offenders. Female police officers (M = 2.82, SD = 0.46, n = 22) reported significantly more favorable perceptions of juvenile offenders on average than their male counterparts (M = 2.45, SD = 0.39, n = 106); [F (1, 126) = 15.03, p < 0.001; d = 0.11].

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