An Examination of the Ethical and Value Orientation of Criminal Justice Students

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to compare the values, likelihood of engaging in ethical violations, and perceptions of the seriousness of a variety of ethical violations of criminal justice students with students in other disciplines while controlling for their gender and interest in law enforcement. Few differences were found between criminal justice students and other students in terms of their value orientations. Although criminal justice students were found to be less likely to believe they would engage in ethical violations and more likely to view such violations as serious, these relationships were found to be insignificant. The variable found to have the most effect in all models was the gender of the student. Women were less likely to commit ethical violations and more likely to view them as more serious. Overall, the research lends more credence to the socialization or occupational opportunity theories for explaining the existence of the police subculture.

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