Understanding the Motivations of Citizens to Join a Community Posse Initiative: A Qualitative Analysis

Authors

Michael McSkimming, Lock Haven University

Abstract

"This qualitative study examines a community posse initiative initiated by the Clearfield County Sheriff’s Office in Pennsylvania in 2015. In this research, we aimed to understand the motivations of volunteers who joined the posse initiative and identify the factors that affect citizens’ decisions to contribute to a volunteer policing effort. To do this, we collected data through semi-structured interviews with posse members and also obtained official data from the Sheriff’s Office. The major findings suggest that participants were motivated to join the posse out of feelings of duty/attachment to the community, a desire to help law enforcement, and a heightened fear of crime. Findings of our research and its contribution to the volunteer policing literature are discussed and implications for future research are suggested."

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

McSkimming, Michael (2020) "Understanding the Motivations of Citizens to Join a Community Posse Initiative: A Qualitative Analysis," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 9: No. 1, Article 7.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol9/iss1/7