CPA Research Examples

Introduction Like most research in within the field of citizen police academies, or CPAs, Brewster, Stoloff, and Sanders attempt to ensure that CPAs are meeting the goals of the departments. Overall, they examined demographic information, opinions before and after the academy, and how likely participants were to become involved with the police department. They compared and contrasted two different CPAs in Virginia: one urban and one suburban department. Comment: The authors seem to research questions that many other CPA research has attempted to answer. However, it is intriguing that they wanted to compare the differences between an urban and a suburban police department. This is the first article that made any attempt to do so.

Review of the research Prior to starting their research, the …show more content…
However, after summarizing the positive and the negative, the authors elected to merely list the summary of one right after another. This was ineffective and could have been organized and criticized better.

Method As previously stated, two police departments CPAs were examined: one urban (Richmond, VA) and one suburban (Harrisburg, VA). Surveys were passed out at the beginning and at the conclusion of the CPA. There were 91 participants in the Harrisburg academy, and 29 in the Richmond (note the difference). All participants in the academy were surveyed. They were asked questions related to the police, the experience, and their future involvement with the police, and they were asked to rate their answers on a scale of 1 to 5. Comment: It is not explained how the two departments were selected (most likely a convenience sample). Also, the researchers only examined one academy class from that department. The data collection did not take place over an extended period of time. This could easily change how the academy was taught and the effort placed into the teaching of the CPA (because of the research).