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Introduction and literature review
Policing in a dynamic society requires law enforcement officers and organizations to adapt to change. Patterson (2011) notes, "It is acknowledged across the globe that traditional policing functions have extended beyond the role of peace-keeping and law enforcement to incorporate problem-solving, technological innovations, transnational crime and prevention strategies." Yet, while most modern police organizations have raised their standards for police training and education, questions of the effectiveness of efforts to transform policing practice remain. At the heart of this issue lies the recognition that attitudes impact learning outcomes. Sherman (1978) suggests that police education should precede entry into the profession as the occupational perspectives learned by in-service officers tend to moderate the impact of education. Learning outcomes have been linked to attitudes that trainees bring to their education and training, which impact the level to which they internalize professional roles (Zedeck et al. , 1981; Phillips et al. , 2010). The purpose of this study is to expand the relationship between Chinese police cadets' backgrounds, motivations, and valuation of their education and their attitudes toward policing roles by building upon Sun et al. (2009) study of Chinese police cadets.
Two general theories have been proffered as explanations of attitudes toward policing roles. The occupational attitudes perspective that cadets/trainees bring into their professional training has been labeled "predisposition theory" (Roberg et al. , 2000; Sun and Payne, 2004). By contrast, the differential socialization/experience theory views attitudes as shaped by experiences in profession or training (Roberg et al. , 2000). Oberfield (2012) references these perspectives as "self-selection" and "socialization." These two perspectives make an interesting parallel with other subject areas. For example, the "importation" and "deprivation" models used to explain prison behavior (Delisi et al. , 2010; McCorkle et al ., 1995; Richards, 2007) also defines inmate predispositions for violence brought into the prison setting and the effects of prisonization on provoking violent behavior.
Chinese police cadets' attitudes toward police roles and practices have not been the subject of much empirical research. The most notable study to date was conducted by Sun et al. 's (2009), which applied importation and socialization concepts in examining the attitudes of Chinese police cadets toward four general police roles. The resulting models provided weak statistical support...