Does the police academy change your life? A longitudinal study of changes in socializing of police recruits

The current study tracks the social behaviour of new police recruits from pre-Academy, after six months' Academy training, through to one year into police training (N = 177). The results showed that recruits socialise and drink more with colleagues after entering the Academy than they did pre-Academy. The way recruits drank also changed during training with a tendency towards heavier drinking sessions. Further results indicated that recruits did feel some pressure to drink to fit in and be one of the crowd. These findings, based on a longitudinal methodology suggest that the enculturation process encouraging recruits to socialise and drink with peers begins early in the training process. The findings are discussed in terms of intervention