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Adherence to the police code of silence: examining changes in recruits' perceptions during the training academy

Christopher M. Donner (Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Jon Maskály (Department of Criminal Justice, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA)

Policing: An International Journal

ISSN: 1363-951X

Article publication date: 15 November 2022

Issue publication date: 17 February 2023

485

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of the code of silence among police recruits in an effort to provide recommendations to reduce its occurrence and harm to society.

Design/methodology/approach

Data analyses are performed on a multi-agency sample of 645 police recruits in the United States. Specifically, analyses are conducted on pre- and post-academy panel data to assess changes in recruits' perceptions of code adherence over time as they begin their immersion into the police culture.

Findings

Results demonstrate that police recruits' willingness to report a fellow officer is reduced by the end of the academy and that several individual and organizational factors impact recruits' code adherence attitudes over time.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the policing literature by exploring changes in recruits' code adherence attitudes over time.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was performed under a subcontract to the University of South Florida from the University of Illinois at Chicago and made possible by grant number 2008-DN-BX-0005 from the National Institute of Justice. Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Justice. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments. This version has been considerably improved because of the efforts.

Citation

Donner, C.M. and Maskály, J. (2023), "Adherence to the police code of silence: examining changes in recruits' perceptions during the training academy", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 46 No. 1, pp. 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-08-2022-0109

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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