Date of Award
5-2019
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science, BS
School
CAS
Department
Sociology Department
Faculty Advisor
Erika Gebo
Abstract
A key issue related to the criminal justice system is if a college education makes a significant impact on an officer’s decision making, perception of their job, and desirability by police departments. Little research has been done on police departments in Massachusetts, so interviews were conducted with three high-ranking police officers in Massachusetts. They were selected using a convenience sample and the results were compared to the results of scholarly journal articles. Only some of the interviews and articles show that police officers with a college degree use force less often, they were inconsistent regarding a college educated officer’s job perception, and their desirability by police departments is questionable. The study is limited due to the use of a convenience sample. Future research should look at police officers and higher education on a nationwide scale.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Subject Headings
Police training, Police--Study and teaching
Recommended Citation
Marshall, Jared, "Police and Higher Education: A Necessity or Just a Desire?" (2019). Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects. 5.
https://dc.suffolk.edu/undergrad/5