ABSTRACT
Police education in Europe paints a diverse picture of the making of a police officer. The longitudinal study Recruitment, Education and Careers in the Police (i.e., the RECPOL project) is a truly systematic comparative quantitative study and is therewith unique in its kind. The project acknowledges the fundamental importance of research on recruitment to the police and the impact of police education on new police officers. Seven European regions and countries have participated in the project thus far: Belgium, Catalonia (Spain), Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Scotland (UK) and Sweden. As part of the research project, police recruits answered a longitudinal series of questionnaires. This volume reports on the period between recruitment and graduation. This chapter gives an overview of the origin, background and methodological considerations of the project, as well as an extensive outline of all chapters in the volume. All the chapters help to answer one or both of the following questions: ‘What characterizes of the kinds of people recruited to police work?’ and ‘How do different systems of police recruitment and education affect the attitudes and views on police work of the new police officers produced by these systems?’
