Gender, Personality, and Career Motivation in Policing

CPACS Urban Research Awards Part of the mission of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS) is to conduct research, especially as it relates to concerns of our local and statewide constituencies. CPACS has always had an urban mission, and one way that mission is served is to preform applied research relevant to urban society in general, and the Omaha metropolitan area and other Nebraska urban communities in particular. Beginning in 2014, the CPACS Dean provided funding for the projects with high relevance to current urban issues, with the potential to apply the findings to practice in Nebraska, Iowa, and beyond

Why Did You Become a Police Officer? Entry-Related Motives and Concerns of Women and Men in Policing

As police agencies in the United States suffer declining applications and struggle to recruit women, the National Institute of Justice has identified workforce development as a priority research area. To recruit more effectively, we must understand what attracts people to policing and what deters them. We surveyed officers in two Midwestern police departments (n = 832) about entry motivations and concerns and examined gender differences. Serve/protect motivations were most important for men and women, though women rated the category significantly higher. Women and non-White officers rated legacy motives higher than did males and White officers. Women reported more concerns overall and scored higher on job demands and acceptance concerns; officers of color also reported more acceptance concerns than White officers. The largest gender differences were associated with gender-related obstacles and stereotypes (e.g., discrimination; being taken seriously; physical demands), indicating recruitment reform necessarily includes improving systemic issues

Programming in Restrictive Housing: Considerations for Improving Outcome Evaluations

A number of studies have identified “what works” in regard to the successful implementation of correctional programming over the past several decades. Few studies, however, have examined the complexities associated with programming in restrictive housing. Using data from a Midwestern department of corrections, we examined whether the provision of programming in restrictive housing achieved desired outcomes (e.g., reductions in inmate misconduct). The findings revealed the amount of time served in restrictive housing and confinement in different types of restrictive housing may influence estimations of a treatment effect. As a growing number of states seek to reform the use of restrictive housing, the proper implementation of cognitive-behavioral programming may increase institutional security and safety

Who Dreams of Badges? Gendered Self-Concept and Policing Career Aspirations

NIJ’s Policing Research Plan (2017-2022) highlights the need to understand factors that attract diverse candidates. We explored whether college students had ever considered policing and found men were significantly more likely than women to contemplate policing careers. Further, we found higher levels of masculinity were associated with greater odds of policing aspirations; the relationship between gender and aspirations was fully mediated by masculine self-concept. Although men typically reported higher masculinity scores, within-gender analyses indicated that masculinity was important for both men and women. Our findings suggest the continued association of masculinity with policing may undercut efforts to recruit a representative workforce

How Did You Become a Police Officer? Entry-Related Motives and Concerns of Women and Men in Policing

As police agencies in the United States suffer declining applications and struggle to recruit women, the National Institute of Justice has identified workforce development as a priority research area. To recruit more effectively, we must understand what attracts people to policing and what deters them. We surveyed officers in two Midwestern police departments (n = 832) about entry motivations and concerns and examined gender differences. Serve/protect motivations were most important for men and women, though women rated the category significantly higher. Women and non-White officers rated legacy motives higher than did males and White officers. Women reported more concerns overall and scored higher on job demands and acceptance concerns; officers of color also reported more acceptance concerns than White officers. The largest gender differences were associated with gender-related obstacles and stereotypes (e.g., discrimination; being taken seriously; physical demands), indicating recruitment reform necessarily includes improving systemic issues

The Transformation Project: Program Update 2015-2016

In 2014 Nebraska took a giant step toward fixing pervasive issues plaguing agencies throughout the justice system culminating in a prison system that was bursting at the seams. The state enlisted the services of the Council of State Governments (CSG), a national organization dedicated to helping state governments problem-solve and develop policies for the common good. Over the next several years, the CSG worked to help Nebraska usher in policies that would begin to shape justice reinvestment in the state. Along with the CSG’s initial assessment procedures, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) asked the group to do an additional review of its institutional programming. The report, released in June of 2016, drove home what many of us who had been working to implement programming within the Department had already experienced: not enough staff to run programs and not enough assessment procedures and training in place to ensure programs are running well. The report also detailed a number of recommendations for NDCS, which included providing more efficient and effective programming. We were delighted to see the effort we had given to specific areas of Transformation Project curriculum and implementation matched perfectly with the CSG’s recommendations. By working to address multiple criminogenic needs at once, building proficiency by integrating graduated skills practice and utilizing gender and youth specific curriculum, Transformation Project is ahead of the curve when it comes to comprehensive prison programming. Our attention to incorporating fidelity measures is also right on target to help overcome some of the issues faced by corrections systems as they work to implement programming. This is reassuring as we develop a program that fits the needs of Nebraska and meets high national standards

The Transformation Project: 2014 Annual Report

For years debate has rumbled in this country over prison overcrowding. More recently, there has been an additional spotlight on issues that are exacerbated when prisons are over capacity, such as prison rape and the use of restrictive housing (housing inmates in isolated conditions). In the case of prison rape, federal standards have been placed on institutions through the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). General consensus among corrections professionals is that a lack of internal action diminished their voice during the creation of the PREA standards. There is consequently a large motivation for correctional institutions to work to address concerns regarding restrictive housing. Groups like Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Association of State Correctional Administrators have all been contributing to this effort by each creating their own guidelines for using restrictive housing. 2014 was a great opportunity for us to reflect on how Transformation Project (TP) will benefit institutions as they look to revise how they house inmates that are a threat to themselves or others. Not only does TP provide programming for restrictive housing, where there has historically been a dearth of programming, it works to increase the amount and quality of interaction between staff and participants, as well as provide a measure for assessing progress in restrictive housing. All of these efforts are included in the recommendations across invested organizations, adding additional value to TP curriculum. In addition to strengthening TP in restrictive housing, this year we began exploring ways the program can be modified for use in a women’s facility. While there is much work to be done in this area, we are excited to bring adaptions to the curriculum that will specifically address the needs of justice involved women. We look forward to continuing the development process with our partners at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women in York, Nebraska, as this group has been instrumental to providing essential expertise and feedback. As debates around corrections issues roll on, in the coming months we look forward to solidifying TP’s role in the rehabilitation of inmates throughout the course of their incarceration

Chemical Heterogeneity on Mercury's Surface Revealed by the MESSENGER X-Ray Spectrometer

We present the analysis of 205 spatially resolved measurements of the surface composition of Mercury from MESSENGER's X-Ray Spectrometer. The surface footprints of these measurements are categorized according to geological terrain. Northern smooth plains deposits and the plains interior to the Caloris basin differ compositionally from older terrain on Mercury. The older terrain generally has higher Mg/Si, S/Si, and Ca/Si ratios, and a lower Al/Si ratio than the smooth plains. Mercury's surface mineralogy is likely dominated by high-Mg mafic minerals (e.g., enstatite), plagioclase feldspar, and lesser amounts of Ca, Mg, and/or Fe sulfides (e.g., oldhamite). The compositional difference between the volcanic smooth plains and the older terrain reflects different abundances of these minerals and points to the crystallization of the smooth plains from a more chemically evolved magma source. High-degree partial melts of enstatite chondrite material provide a generally good compositional and mineralogical match for much of the surface of Mercury. An exception is Fe, for which the low surface abundance on Mercury is still higher than that of melts from enstatite chondrites and may indicate an exogenous contribution from meteoroid impacts