Ethical decision-making in law enforcement academy recruits

Abstract

This doctoral thesis was grounded in the theories of Moral Disengagement (Bandura), the General Self-Efficacy (Schwarzer & Jerusalem) and five predictor variables: military experience, family members employed as law enforcement, age, gender, and the participants' current stage of law enforcement academy training. Moral Disengagement theory proposed individuals had a selective capacity to disregard their moral and ethical standards and justify their behaviors through a contingency-based model of reasoning; the individual may psychologically validate, rationalize, or excuse those same unethical behaviors to themselves or others, no matter how immoral. Eight subscales are associated with moral disengagement theory: reconstructing immoral conduct or moral justification, advantageous comparison, euphemistic labeling, displacement of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility, misrepresenting or distorting the consequences of personal actions, blame assessment to the victim, and dehumanization of the victim. Data was collected for this survey-based research study using an online three-part survey, with the first section's questions related to moral disengagement, the second to perceived level of self-efficacy, and the third to the five predictor variables. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted which allowed multiple variables to be analyzed simultaneously. This helped determine the relationship between dependent variable, moral disengagement, and the independent variables, the recruits' descriptors and perceived level of self-efficacy. The most significant finding was that law enforcement academy recruits reported high self-efficacy and low moral disengagement. Other findings revealed no significant relationship between moral disengagement and the five descriptors. To reduce moral disengagement, screening processes and training efforts should be directed towards examining and reinforcing self-efficacy.