Robert G. Culbertson

Police Cynicism, Job Satisfaction, and Work Relations of Police Chiefs: An Assessment of the Influence of Department Size

Abstract In this project the interrelationships among three attitudes — police cynicism, job satisfaction, and work relations — for police chiefs have been examined. Chiefs were contrasted along the dimension of department size. Data were derived from survey questionnaire responses of 574 of 771 Illinois police chiefs (74.4 percent). Our findings point to important differences with regard to these attitudes for rural and urban chiefs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for future research.

The measurement of cynicism among police chiefs

Abstract Regolis modification of Niederhoffers police cynicism scale was assessed for its reliability and validity for police chiefs. A principal components factor analysis uncovered three underlying dimensions of cynicism. Each was conceptually consistent with those constructed by Regoli for police line-officers; thus, the findings of this research offer evidence for the stability of these subscales.

Police professionalism and cynicism reconsidered: An assessment of measurement issues

The research explores the empirical relationship between professionalism and cynicism. Assessments of the multidimensionality and scale independence of these two theoretical constructs are made using LISREL estimation procedures. The results of the analysis indicate that professionalism and cynicism map different domains of content with one exception, which involves factor congruence between CALLING, a professional dimension, and COMMITMENT, a cynicism dimension. The analysis also reveals theoretically unexpected relationships where two professionalism factors are shown to exert positive effects on cynicism.

Cynicism among police chiefs

This paper examines the cynicism of police chiefs. Data were derived from the questionnaire responses of 519 of 771 Illinois police administrators (67.3 percent). The results indicate that cynicism among chiefs gradually declines with experience in office. In addition, chiefs with more education and those administering larger police agencies were found to experience less cynicism. However, we also found that there is little variance in police chief cynicism scores and that the mean cynicism score of chiefs is modest. Thus, the conclusion that police chiefs are not a cynical lot seems warranted.

Using Composite Measures in Police Cynicism Research: An Application of Canonical Factor Regression

In this paper, a “new” analytical strategy, the canonical factor regression method (CFRM) is introduced as a tool for constructing indices and measuring reliabilities of those indices from items derived from Niederhoffers police cynicism index. Data for the project were derived from the survey responses of 574 Illinois police chiefs. Analysis of the data in the present project suggests that CFRM is a useful tool for constructing composite indices. CFRM allowed us to provide a more powerful test of hypothesized relationships between dimensions of cynicism and theoretically salient predictor variables than has previously been possible.