As the principal user of legitimate force, the police play an important role in any society. The most obvious and important task is to guarantee that rules and laws will be respected, thereby preventing society from falling into chaos. Yet another task is to safeguard the democratic rights assigned to each and every member of society by the constitution. In order to carry out its task, special powers are vested in the police. However, precisely because of the far-reaching authority given to the police, any democratic society must restrict the use of police powers in order to prevent the police from becoming too independent.

In this dissertation, the discussion of legitimate authority revolves around potential areas of conflict. For example, the need to act within the law implies the weighing of the rule of law against quick and concrete results. Second, the authority of hierarchies is challenged when an officer breaks the law. The autonomous officer typically chooses not to report the bad behavior of colleagues, while transgressions should be reported to supervisors according to the legalistic perspective.

The process and factors that come to shape the recruits’ perceptions of the police role – i.e. the idea of the purpose of police work and how those tasks are best carried out in practice – are examined by utilizing both longitudinal survey data and qualitative panel data. The first study covers two cohorts of Swedish police recruits, while the interview-study follows 24 recruits during their academy years and their initial years as sworn officers. Both studies show stable support for the legalistic perspective during academy training. However, during on-the-job training, the recruits become more positive towards non-legalistic practices. There is, for example, some effect of age and gender: young male recruits are somewhat more prone to adopt Dirty Harry-inspired measures – that is, achieving essential ends by tarnished means.

This study provides a test of the presumption that police recruits with a diverse background, undertaking comparatively long academic training, will refrain from non-legalistic practices. This is tested by longitudinal survey data, covering two cohorts of Swedish police recruits. The results show stable support for the legalistic perspective during academy training. However, during on-the-job training, the recruits become more positive towards non-legalistic practices. This reorientation takes place quite irrespective of the type of duty to which they are assigned. Additionally, neither the recruits’ nor their parents’ level of education seems to matter. There is some effect of age and gender: young male recruits are somewhat more prone to adopt Dirty Harry-inspired measures – that is, achieving essential ends by tarnished means.

Med sikte på profession redovisar data från ”Femklöverprojektet”. Femklövern har följt studenter på fem akademiska yrkesutbildningar vid Linnéuniversitetet, från att de började sina studier fram till deras första två år i yrkeslivet. De utbildade sig till poliser, socionomer, personalvetare, bibliotekarier och idrottscoacher.

De fem utbildningsprogrammen har i olika grad ambitionen att bli professionsutbildningar och vetter dels mot ämnesstudier, dels mot det direkt yrkesförberedande. Spänningen mellan universitetets krav och arbetsmarknadens förväntningar präglar både studiernas uppläggning och studenternas studiemotiv, men också hur studenterna uppfattar studiernas relevans för det yrkesliv som de ser framför sig.

Ett viktigt tema är i vilken utsträckning yrkesutbildningarna förmedlat professionella inslag och förhållningssätt och hur dessa utvecklas under utbildningen och i arbetslivet. Vi har även strävat efter att fånga i vad mån programmens vetenskapliga bas har genomsyrat utbildningarna och i vilken grad studenterna tillägnat sig den.

 Författarna visar på en viktig trend i högskolans yrkesorienterade program. Allt fler utbildningsprogram som redan finns i högskolans regi utvecklar tydliga professionsanspråk. Samtidigt växer antalet yrkesorienterade utbildningar som vill nå högskolestatus. De resultat som här redovisas har därför betydelse och relevans långt utöver de fem yrkesutbildningar som ingick i Femklövern.

In this paper we will present data from a case study, including four occupations, which represent different levels of professionalism, in terms of their professional autonomy, their scientific-cognitive bases, and their degree of subordination to the logics of management and bureaucracy within the organisations where they perform their tasks. The occupations chosen are social workers, human resource management personnel (HRM), policemen and sport managers (CSM). Two of these are exclusively employed in the public sector (policemen and social workers) and two are employed mainly in the non-public sectors (HRM and CSM). Two groups are trained in well-established professional programs in the Swedish university system (social work and HRM) while the training of the other two (police and CSM) are new to the University system.

The aim of the study focuses on the dilemmas of professionalism linked to the processes of making different occupational groups more academic. We will discuss key aspects of these occupations within a framework of the structure of the Swedish Professional Landscape. We focus on the similarities and differences among them, shaped by their different levels of acquired professionalism, their control over occupational niches, their perceived identity as an occupation/profession and the character of the scientific-cognitive basis for each group.

The case study consists of the four occupations described above and is based on (small) surveys of students.  They participated in the study as a) students in the beginning of their studies, and as b) working in their different occupations after taken their degrees. As a complement to the surveys a number of in – depth interviews has been conducted focusing the experiences of being and becoming a professional.