Reasons for choosing a correction officer career.

Abstract

Correction officers represent a growing segment of the U.S. workforce, with more job openings today than there are applicants. However, there is scant scholarship on this subgroup of law enforcement personnel. In this study, 256 correction officer candidates completed a brief measure regarding their reasons for choosing a correctional career. We sought to (a) identify the reasons for choosing a correction career and determine whether these reasons differed from those identified in studies of police recruits, (b) determine whether race or gender played a role in career choice for correction officer candidates, and (c) evaluate the factor structure and psychometric validity of a scale that was previously used with police samples. Our results indicated that correction and police officer candidates diverge in terms of their reasons for seeking careers in law enforcement. Correction officer candidates placed greater importance on financial motivators, whereas police recruits indicated service as a primary factor in career choice. The scale demonstrated good initial estimates of psychometric validity, and the factor structure in the current sample differed from those found in studies with police recruits.