TY - JOUR
T1 - The Continued Marginalization of Campus Police
AU - Patten, Ryan
AU - Alward, Lucas
AU - Thomas, Matthew
N1 - To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below: Ryan Patten (Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, California State University , Chico, California, USA) Lucas Alward (Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, California State University , Chico, California, USA) Matthew Thomas (Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, California State University , Chico, California, USA) James Wada (Department of Justice Studies, Chadron State College, Chadron, Nebraska, USA) The purpose of this paper is to examine a campus community's knowledge and acceptance of their campus police as "real" police.
PY - 2020/8/15
Y1 - 2020/8/15
N2 - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a campus community’s knowledge and acceptance of their campus police as “real” police. Design/methodology/approach – Using the liminality theoretical framework, this study surveyed students, faculty, staff, and administrators (n ¼ 1,484). Students were surveyed in-person, while staff, faculty, and administrators participated through an e-mail link to an online survey. Findings – Results indicate that campus police are stuck in a liminal state. While 80 percent of the sample thought campus police should be armed, almost two-thirds (64 percent) did not know or were unsure of campus police officer tasks and three-quarters (75 percent) did not know or were unsure of campus police training requirements. Research limitations/implications – The participants come from one university campus, so the generalizability of the sample is limited. Originality/value – This study provides more evidence of the marginalization of campus police. Specifically, this study highlights that a majority of participants could not or were unable to identify campus police officers’ training and duties. Instead of using small qualitative samples, this study utilized over 1,400 participants on one campus, which provides more explanatory power about the perception problems of the campus police. This study also continues to advance and expand liminal theory.
AB - Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a campus community’s knowledge and acceptance of their campus police as “real” police. Design/methodology/approach – Using the liminality theoretical framework, this study surveyed students, faculty, staff, and administrators (n ¼ 1,484). Students were surveyed in-person, while staff, faculty, and administrators participated through an e-mail link to an online survey. Findings – Results indicate that campus police are stuck in a liminal state. While 80 percent of the sample thought campus police should be armed, almost two-thirds (64 percent) did not know or were unsure of campus police officer tasks and three-quarters (75 percent) did not know or were unsure of campus police training requirements. Research limitations/implications – The participants come from one university campus, so the generalizability of the sample is limited. Originality/value – This study provides more evidence of the marginalization of campus police. Specifically, this study highlights that a majority of participants could not or were unable to identify campus police officers’ training and duties. Instead of using small qualitative samples, this study utilized over 1,400 participants on one campus, which provides more explanatory power about the perception problems of the campus police. This study also continues to advance and expand liminal theory.
KW - campus police
KW - liminal theory
UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-04-2016-0055
U2 - 10.1108/PIJPSM-04-2016-0055
DO - 10.1108/PIJPSM-04-2016-0055
M3 - Article
SN - 1363-951X
VL - 39
JO - Policing: An International Journal
JF - Policing: An International Journal
IS - 3
ER -
