Sources of prejudice among police cadets toward foreigners: A test of intergroup threat theory
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211037464 |
| Published date | 01 April 2023 |
| Date | 01 April 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211037464
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2023, Vol. 23(2) 237 –256
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/17488958211037464
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Sources of prejudice
among police cadets
toward foreigners: A test
of intergroup threat theory
Ismail Cenk Demirkol
Independent Researcher, Turkey
Mahesh K Nalla
Michigan State University, USA
Abstract
Literature in policing has mostly overlooked the antecedents of prejudice, especially those who
choose a police career. Such a choice is important given the results of prejudice that might cause
police misconduct toward regular migrants, irregular migrants, and refugees. This study aims to
examine the factors that explain prejudice among police cadets toward other ethnic groups. This
study’s data come from a survey of 725 police cadets in three police vocational schools in Turkey.
We employed structural equation modeling to examine the antecedents of prejudice toward
foreigners within the framework of intergroup threat theory. More specifically, in this study, we
included factors such as anomie, authoritarianism, and nationalism and participants’ symbolic and
realistic threat perceptions in shaping prejudice toward foreigners. The findings suggest that police
cadets’ realistic threat perception was the most salient antecedent of prejudice toward foreigners.
Keywords
Intergroup threat theory, police cadets, prejudice, realistic threat
Introduction
The subject of police misconduct toward minorities and other ethnic groups is widely
studied. Police misconduct toward foreigners (in this article, we refer to the term to
include regular migrants, migrants without legal status, and refugees) is a global problem
Corresponding author:
Mahesh K Nalla, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, 560 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI
48824, USA.
Email: nalla@msu.edu
1037464CRJ0010.1177/17488958211037464Criminology & Criminal JusticeDemirkol and Nalla
research-article2021
Article
238 Criminology & Criminal Justice 23(2)
(Egharevba and White, 2007; Piatkowska, 2015). Research from around the world sug-
gests that migrants, both legal and illegal (Pitkanen and Kouki, 2002) and minorities
(Colman and Gorman, 1982), are targeted by the police and are subjected to police mis-
conduct (Egharevba, 2009; Yamamoto, 2010). Turkey is no exception. Research findings
suggest that migrants, particularly irregular migrants and refugees, are subjected to
police misconduct, excessive use of force, disrespect, and negative discretionary power
in Turkey (Demir, 2010).
Prejudice based on gender, race, and sexuality is one of the principal elements affect-
ing their working practices, especially discretion among the lower-ranked of police offic-
ers (Waddington, 2008). “Tension,” “stereotyping,” and “misunderstanding” are words
that typically describe the relations between the police and minority groups (Tyler et al.,
2007). Regarding attitudes toward ethnic and racial minorities, some argue that often
there is a congruence between police officers’ and citizens’ racial and/or ethnic biases
(Reiner, 2010). However, some studies suggest that police officers, relative to the general
population, are more prejudiced against minorities (Colman and Gorman, 1982). In such
instances where the attitudes are negative, minority suspects will likely be mistreated by
the police (Tonry, 2007), and legal and illegal migrants are consistently discriminated
against (Cockcroft, 2012). There is considerable research supporting police bias toward
both legal and illegal migrants (Bertrand et al., 2005; Fielding and Fielding, 1991;
Pitkanen and Kouki, 2002; Romero, 2006).
The focus of this article, however, is police cadets’ and their perceptions and prejudice
of foreigners. Though cadets are often on their way to becoming police officers, they are
not exposed to situations that bring them into adversarial relations with migrant groups,
which could heighten feelings of suspicion and mistrust between both parties (Egharevba
and White, 2007). However, police schools and academies offer cadets exposure to the
elements of police culture (Van Maanen, 1974). Some argue that police culture erode
police cadets’ high ideals and values and willingness to help people (Platz et al., 2017).
Such bias is often exacerbated by police occupational culture, which results in more
dogmatism, conservatism, and racism among officers (Manning, 1977; Reiner, 2010),
prompting policing scholars to call for planned change in police culture (Chan, 1996)
with emphasis on cultural diversity training (Gould, 1997).
Prior research on cadets have examined specific attitudes, such as intervention in
domestic violence (Buchanan and Perry, 1985), child abuse training and abusive parents
(Patterson, 2004), changes in socializing behavior (Obst and Davey, 2003), and implica-
tions of hazing rituals on police recruits’ identities (De Albuquerque and Paes-Machado,
2004). However, with a few exceptions (Egharevba and White, 2007), a limited number
of studies critically examine police cadets’ views of racial and ethnic prejudice and, more
importantly, attitudes toward migrants. Thus, this study aims to fill the literature gap by
examining sources and predictors of prejudice among police cadets in Turkey toward
migrant groups.
Prejudice and its causes
Prejudice refers to negative attitudes toward a social group (Duckitt, 1992). In his classic
work, Allport (1954) defined ethnic prejudice as an “antipathy based upon a faulty and
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