Public information officers - The civilianization of a criminal justice profession

    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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