Personal background and reasons for choosing a career in policing - An empirical study of police students in Taiwan

Policing has long been thought of as a job with high danger and pressure. W hy and what type of people join the police force is becoming one of the mor e important issues in criminal justice research. This article examines care er choice behavior of police students in Taiwan to help police departments develop recruitment strategies. Findings were obtained using survey researc h questionnaire with nineteen suggested reasons given to the freshmen of th e Central Police University in Taiwan. The study found that most of the stu dents are males from a lower- or middle-level socioeconomic family status. The major reasons that the students gave for selecting a policing career we re for "good salary and fringe benefits" and "influence from parents." Some statistical differences exist between the reasons given by the male and fe male students, but less difference exists when the three levels of socioeco nomic backgrounds are considered. In addition to the analysis of the respon ses to the questionnaire, a brief discussion of the above findings and the implications for police recruitment is presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.