Lin, K-H; (2020) Towards Democratic Policing in Taiwan: A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Police Education on Human Rights, Moral Reasoning, Prejudice and Receptivity to Evidence-Based Policing. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis investigates how police socialisation, and in particular police education, influences police recruits in terms of several democratic policing indicators (DPI) and their receptivity to evidence-based policing (EBP). The DPI used here are derived from prior research and theory, namely: 1) human rights endorsement, 2) advanced moral reasoning, and 3) lack of prejudice. To observe temporal changes in DPI and receptivity to EBP, this thesis applies a multiple-group longitudinal design that includes both police recruits and university undergraduates (as a comparison group). This sample takes advantage of the centralised police education system in Taiwan – Central Police University (CPU) – and the fact that there is only one criminology department in Taiwan – National Chung Cheng University (NCCU). The sample used here comprises five cohorts: 1) police officers on in-service programs, 2) graduate recruits in police academy training, 3) new and 4) senior recruits on cadre programs at CPU, and 5) first-year undergraduates at NCCU. To determine the potential influence of different stages of police socialisation, this thesis conceptualises police socialisation from three perspectives: 1) recruit predisposition, 2) police education and training and 3) police work/culture. All participating cohorts are surveyed on three occasions (primarily September 2016, 2017 and 2018) in order to test the applicability of these perspectives. The sample covers the whole population of each cohort and was subject to little attrition across the three periods of data collection. Five research instruments were used here: 1) Attitude towards Human Rights (ATHR), 2) Defining Issues Test–2 (DIT-2), 3) Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), 4) Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and 5) Evidence-based Policing Receptivity scale (EBPR). This thesis has five principal findings. First, the conceptualisation of democratic policing used here passes the construct validity test, implying that the concept is sufficiently captured by the three indicators used in this study: adherence to human rights, advanced moral reasoning and the absence of prejudice. Second, among the three stages of police socialisation considered here, police education and training is found to exert a negative influence on all outcome variables. There is little effect observed in both the predisposition and police work/culture perspectives on these outcome variables. Third, graduate recruits are shown to exhibit no reliable differences on all outcome variables when compared to police recruits without degrees. Fourth, sworn officers do not change significantly during in-service education. Finally, the observed negative influence of police education and training is mainly attributed to the paramilitary management at CPU. The implications of the findings for police practice, police education and further research are discussed.

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