Dissertation
Betwixt and between: the perceived legitimacy of campus police
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
08/2007
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005686
Abstract
Historically, campus police (CP) have evolved similar to "mainstream" police.
However, the identity of CP has been unclear. First, CP may not be accepted by
university administration because they are "cops," not part of academia. Second,
students and other law enforcement agencies may not perceive CP as “cops" because
they are based in a university system.
The legitimacy of police officers is crucial for public support and cooperation;
without it, a police officer's effort to combat crime and maintain order is jeopardized.
Although CP marginalization has been discussed in the literature, there are no empirical
studies of CP legitimacy.
To explore the legitimacy of CP, CP officers from a doctoral extensive land grant
institution were interviewed. The analysis of interviews reflected three salient perceptions
of CP: (1) In many instances the community did not regard CP as sworn police officers;
(2) the public stereotypes CP; and (3) CP have to “sell” their profession to the public.
Overall, the interviews indicated that CP perceive some level of marginalization by the
public.
To confirm the perceptions of CP, a convenience sample of 593 undergraduate
students were surveyed. The surveys were used to compare student perceptions of
legitimacy between CP and municipal police (MP) at the department and individual
officer levels. Results of the surveys indicated that students have lower perceived levels
of legitimacy for CP officers compared to MP officers (p=.01). Similarly, students have
lower perceived levels of legitimacy for the CP department compared to the MP
department (p=.05). Consequently, it appears that the perceptions of CP were justified.
Survey results indicated that students do, indeed, perceive CP as a less legitimate law
enforcement authority compared to their "mainstream" counterpart.
Victor Turner’s theory of liminality was used to explain CP marginalization.
Turner describes liminality as a transitional period between two social standings.
However, in some instances, a person or group may never transition out of that liminal
period. These unfortunate few are consider "permanently" liminal. The analysis of CP
interviews and student surveys indicated that CP appear to be "permanently" liminal,
trapped in an ambiguous state, "betwixt and between" two social standings.
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Details
- Title
- Betwixt and between
- Creators
- James Christopher Wada
- Contributors
- Forrest Parkay (Chair) - Washington State University, Department of Educational Leadership, Sport Studies, and Educational/Counseling Psychology
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- College of Education
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 218
- Identifiers
- 99901054938801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation