The Construction and Implementation of an Alternative Measure of Police Cynicism

Abstract

Research on police cynicism is beset by two limitations. First, research aimed at identifying latent dimensions within the Niederhoffer 20-item scale has resulted in a surfeit of subscales that appear to be unique to the research setting. Second, no job-related consequences of police cynicism have been identified. The present research focuses on both issues. First, a police cynicism scale that is purposefully multidimensional was constructed. Second, the impact of the cynicism subscales on three areas of job performance—work relations, hostile police-citizen encounters, and arrests—was assessed. Data were derived from questionnaire responses of 110 police officers who represented two departments in Colorado. An analysis of latent structure identified four dimensions of cynicism. Composite indices constructed from these indices were found to affect all areas of job performance.