Title

Public information officers - The civilianization of a criminal justice profession

Authors

Authors

R. Surette

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Crim. Justice

Keywords

CRIME; Criminology & Penology

Abstract

Criminal justice Public information Officers (PIOs) are a unique criminal justice specialty and key gatekeepers in the production of crime and justice information. The findings of a 1998 survey of the Florida PIO professional association members and nonmembers are reported. The results show that a typical PIO is a middle-aged, sworn, college-educated male. PIOs have also shifted away ti om criminal justice and communication degrees to reflect a broader, more diverse set of disciplines. Comparing association members with nonmembers, civilian PIOs, especially those from larger agencies, concentrate in the state's professional association while sworn PIOs, particularly from smaller agencies, dominate the nonmember ranks. Professional association member PIOs also tend to be assigned a greater range of job tasks and to spend more time on those tasks than the nonassociation members. The results suggest that a civilian/sworn dichotomy reported in prior research remains significant for PIOs and has come to overlap with a professional association member/nonmember division. The implications for criminal justice agencies and for the PIO as a criminal justice career are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Journal Title

Journal of Criminal Justice

Volume

29

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2001

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

107

Last Page

117

WOS Identifier

WOS:000167741700003

ISSN

0047-2352

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