Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Police Chiefs, Anomia, And Leadership, Kraig L. Hays, Robert M. Regoli, John D. Hewitt

Peer Reviewed Publications

This research assesses a potentially harmful condition among police chiefs: anomia. The article analyzes a large (N = 1,120) stratified sample survey of American police chiefs. Nine hypotheses are tested using multiple regressions. Results show relatively little anomia (as defined by Srole’s 5-point Likert-type scale) among the respondents. Data analysis reveals little relationship between anomia and the following four variables: age, being a chief in a previous jurisdiction, race/ethnicity, and internal hire. However, the analysis also reveals significant negative relationships between anomia and education, merit selection, and years in law enforcement and between anomia and size of department and tenure …