Law Enforcement Study Guide Exam 2 Chapter 4 Selection and Hiring Practices Authoritarianism p 136 The authoritarian personality describes an individual who carries a narrow and unbending outlook about what is morally right and wrong An authoritarian is very rigid and dogmatic in his or her thinking Behaviorally anchored rating scales BARS p 129 A BARS requires several construction steps First employees list all the things they normally do in a given position Second this list is pared down to what are considered essential or critical tasks Finally this list undergoes revision so that the final set of items encompasses everything an officer might encounter during a typical tour of duty The BARS format is superior to subjective and objective performance measures Not all law enforcement agencies use BARS BARS are very time consuming to construct It is only recently that police agencies have turned to BARS as employee assessment devices Black officer vs Black officer p 142 Some community representatives may be skeptical because these minority members are police officers Some police officers may be skeptical because these officers are minority members Bona fide occupational qualification BFOQ p 119 120 An essential job requirement or duty that creates the need to hire or to seemingly discriminate against certain people The employer must show that a particular hiring practice is needed to operate the business in a safe and efficient manner Consent decree p 144 A consent decree is that remedial plan the agency submits to the presiding judge It addresses the current and any anticipated future inequities uncovered by the plaintiffs Defeminization p 149 By distancing herself from traditional sex role expectations she absorbs such male characteristics as assertiveness and aggressiveness Domino effect p 151 Once an incumbent in a gold position retires dies or otherwise vacates that slot there is an upward shuffle within the organization Minimum standards p 122 Entrance requirements that Florida demands of all incoming law enforcement officers While agencies cannot hire anybody who lags behind these requirements they are free to initiate more stringent criteria hence the term minimum standards Figure 4 3 on page 123 Objective performance measures p 128 129 Such job measures include things like number of arrests traffic citations issued citizen complaints calls answered and disciplinary actions Research with objective measures yields mixed results Over representation p 142 Occurs when minority or female officers exceed the relative minority or female population Ex Washington D C 2000 D C population was 60 black The corresponding police figure was 66 Thus African American officers exceeded the relative minority population Pathology of power p 137 Sudden transformation of normal college students into sadistic and power hungry ogres As seen in the experiment done by Haney and his research team Policewoman vs policewoman p 149 The policewoman views herself first and foremost as a law enforcement officer Her efforts aim at defeminization By distancing herself from traditional sex role expectations she absorbs such male characteristics as assertiveness and aggressiveness The policewoman on the other hand downplays her job identity and emphasizes her femininity This type adapts to occupational pressures and sex role expectations by pursuing service rather than criminal calls She accepts traditional boundaries and sees herself as a helper to other officers rather than as a self starter who seizes the initiative Predictive validity p 128 Researchers have taken psychological test scores and correlated them with personnel evaluations to examine predictive validity In other words do these psychological test scores predict how well officers will perform on the job The results do not show any consistent patterns Sometimes there is a relationship between scores and job performance sometimes there is not Screen in p 118 Implies that the agency is looking for people who match a profile of what a good police officer should look like Subjective performance measures p 128 Enjoy widespread popularity because they are very easy to devise and to implement Police departments sometimes have supervisors rate subordinate officers on qualitative traits such as commitment loyalty to the agency ethics integrity ability to get along with other conscientiousness and job knowledge Under representation p 40 Occurs when the percentage of minority or female officers in police agencies doesn t mirror the percent of that particular group in the population of the surrounding community Weed out p 118 Means that investigators approach each application looking for grounds to disqualify the person from further consideration 1 What does the Civil Rights Act have to do with employment criteria p 119 The Act specifically prohibits employers from refusing to hire someone because of that person s race color religion sex or national origin In addition an employer cannot limit segregate or classify his employees or applicants solely because of race color religion sex or national origin 2 What does the term bona fide occupational qualification mean p 119 120 The employer must show that a particular hiring practice is needed to operate the business in a safe and efficient manner This exception is known as bona fide occupational qualification or more simply a BFOQ An essential job requirement or duty that creates the need to hire or to seemingly discriminate against certain people 3 What is meant by prima facie discrimination p 120 This exists when an employment prerequisite disproportionately excludes a protected group from being hired More important the burden of proof now shifts from the plaintiff to the employer who must demonstrate a viable connection between the entrance and the actual job performance 4 What are the four ingredients necessary for a prima facie discrimination case p 120 121 The person filing the complaint must be a minority member or a female in order to establish that he or she belongs to a protected class The person filing the complaint must meet the minimum entrance requirements for the position The employer must have rejected the applicant even though the person satisfied the entrance requirements The employer must have continued to interview other candidates after making the decision not to hire the individual who is bringing the complaint 5 Outline the stages of the typical police selection process p 121 134 The
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