2022/01/09 by Glenn D. Walters, Lindsey Runell, Jonathan Kremser
Social Sciences · #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Legal Education and Practice Innovations #Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/10511253.2022.2025875
openalex publication_date 2022/01/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Career aspirations, influences, and motives were compared for cohorts of criminal justice majors surveyed in 2014 (N = 204) and 2021 (N = 218). The first hypotheses held that there would be significantly fewer students interested in a career in law enforcement in 2021 than in 2014 because of recent events involving police use of excessive force against people of color. Contrary to this hypothesis, interest in a law enforcement career, particularly federal law enforcement, grew rather than shrank between 2014 and 2021. A second hypothesis predicted an increase in altruistic motives and a decrease in egotistic motives for a criminal justice career between 2014 and 2021. This hypothesis received partial support. A third hypothesis, this one testing whether law enforcement career aspirations and media influences on career choice in criminal justice majors decreased and teacher/professor influences increased as class standing (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior) increased, also received support.