Correlates of the endorsement of two competing policing styles among police cadets in China

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate police cadets’ endorsement of the law enforcement style and the community policing style of policing at a time when both styles of police practices have received significant attention in China. The data used in the analysis were collected from a national police university in China featuring a large sample of 900+ cadets. The first research objective concerns the dimensionality of sentiments toward the two styles of policing among police cadets. The second is the identification of key factors associated with these styles. The principal findings are that police cadets do see the law enforcement style and the community policing style as two distinctive conceptual dimensions. Moreover, different factors are associated with endorsement of each of the two styles of policing. Policy implications of these findings are discussed in some detail.