Police Mentoring of At-Risk Youth: Case Study of Police-Led Mentoring Program Leadership Development

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/02750740231192962
• Author: Vernise Estorcien
• Date: 01 February 2024

Police Mentoring of At-Risk Youth: Case

Study of Police-Led Mentoring Program

Leadership Development

Vernise Estorcien

1

Abstract

Police-led organizations provide off‌icers with the ability to mentor youth in a nurturing environment that empowers them to

succeed academically, behaviorally, and socially. This article focuses on how police off‌icers mentor youths in a major urban

area in the southeast. A case study was presented of a police-led organization, which included in-depth interviews with pro-

gram leaders and mentors, participant observations, and a review of secondary sources over 2 years. The main f‌indings from

the study are as follows: (1) program leaders emphasize that caring mentors needto be empathetic toward youth exposed to

gun violence, (2) off‌icers’previous experiences matter for their motivation to become mentors, and(3) off‌icers stimulate

students by taking them out of their usual social environments. This research expands the theoretical understanding of

how police-led organizations inf‌luence the lives of youth exposed to gun violence.The characteristics of police off‌icers

who serve as mentors are crucial and can impact program outcomes. Practical implications for program leaders are discussed.

Keywords

police-led organization, mentorship, off‌icers, social capital

Introduction

Law enforcement agencies adopt police-led organizations to

establish a personalized relationship with youth (typically

under 18 years of age). Mentors (i.e., the off‌icers) act as

role models, engaging the youth in various activities to

promote and reinforce positive academic, behavioral, and

social development. These activities range from participating

in fun activities (such as arts, sports, music, and cooking) to

having tough conversations about life choices in cases of

duress (e.g., substance use, crime, and violence). The

police visit the youth’s home to ensure that their domestic

life is conducive to positive growth (e.g., better academic

achievement and personal discipline). In this manner, they

enlist the help and support of the family (parents, grandpar-

ents, and siblings) to provide a holistic environment for the

positive growth of the youth. Off‌icers also establish

broader community relations with the schools and youth

community centers that can reinforce such growth.

In this article, the author undertakes an exploratory case

study of a police-led organization in a major urban area in

the southeast. The question asked in this article is: how do

off‌icers’approach to mentorship inf‌luence the success of

police-led organizations? Specif‌ically, the author considers

the question as it relates to participating youth’s academic,

behavior, and social skills. Answering this question provides

insights into how the mentors (i.e., police off‌icers) are

making an impact on youths exposed to gun violence, to

succeed academically, behaviorally, and socially. Police-led

organizations are embedded within the law enforcement

agencies, target youth exposed to gun violence, and are

managed by law enforcement off‌icers.

This paper seeks to gain a deeper understanding of off‌i-

cers’approach to mentoring through social capital theory

(SCT). The basic notion of SCT is to invest in social relations

as a form of capital, similar to physical and f‌inancial capital

(Lin, 2017). Rooted in trusting networked relationships, SCT

has proliferated in recent years as a strategy to tackle issues

affecting individuals living in marginalized low-income

neighborhoods (Coleman, 1988, 1994; Jencks, 1992; Lin,

2002; Putnam, 2002; Wilson, 2012). SCT plays an important

role in ensuring that public organizations have both individ-

ual and social resources, as well as the potential for reducing

the detrimental effects caused by a lack of supportive rela-

tionships (Laser & Leibowitz, 2009; Putnam, 1995).

1

Paul. H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana

University–Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Vernise Estorcien, Paul. H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental

Affairs, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN,

USA.

Email: vestorci@iu.edu

Article

American Review of Public Administration

2024, Vol. 54(2) 135–150

© The Author(s) 2023

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/02750740231192962

journals.sagepub.com/home/arp

Fitzpatrick et al. (2005) argue that disadvantaged environ-

ments are related to the lack of supportive networks; an

increase in human capital is positively associated with

youth successfully navigating high-risk settings. This article

thus provides a starting point for understanding the impact

of police-led organizations on youths exposed to gun vio-

lence by building social capital.

The next section of this article provides an overview of

the literature. After this, the article discusses the back-

ground and context, including a discussion of SCT. The

article then presents the theoretical framework, research

methodology, and themes that emerged from the case

study. The article concludes with key factors that impact

mentors’(i.e., off‌icers’) approach to mentoring. Brief‌ly, the

key factors ofmentoring include the personal characteristics

of off‌icers, off‌icers’previous experiences, and off‌icers’

desire to stimulate the mentees by expanding the social

milieu of the children beyond their usual environment.

Mentors play a key role in providing better academic,

behavioral, and social opportunities.

Literature Review

Current literature suggests that in addition to being law

enforcers, off‌icers serve other roles such as mentors, teachers,

and counselors (Beger, 2002; Brown, 2006; Jackson, 2002;

James & McCallion, 2013). Specif‌ically, off‌icers serving as

a mentor can become a resource for students impacted by

gun violence and assist with identifying youths requiring

additional academic, behavioral, and social support. As

shown by Dewit et al. (2016) and Grossman et al. (2012),

mentorship is positively associated with prominent academic

achievement (e.g., school attendance, higher grade scores,

and scholastic eff‌icacy). Therefore, serving as a mentor

allows off‌icers to act as a conduit for overcoming ongoing

academic failure and negative behaviors in youths while

instilling a sense of legitimacy in marginalized communities

(Arter, 2006).

Off‌icers may also serve as a sounding board for students, a

coach, or simply a role model who the students can interact

with (Devlin & Gottfredson, 2018; Travis III & Coon,

2005). As a mentor, police off‌icers have an opportunity to

interact with participants in a less confrontational manner,

allowing for more fun and engaging interaction. For

example, a study conducted by Broaddus et al. (2013)

found a decrease in stereotyping and an increase in positive

interaction between off‌icers and youths when they shared

common interests and were able to engage in a fun way.

Despite the challenges in serving as a mentor, research

shows that off‌icers possess the skills to serve as a mentor.

Mentoring has been an acceptable practice for tackling the

needs and problems of youths for centuries. Mentorship is a

way to provide guidance and training (Schlossman, 1977),

serve as a role model to fatherless children, and assist

youth in need of socialization and guidance with positive

adults (Grossman & Garry, 1997). Broadly speaking, a

mentor is simply a law-abiding community adult who

serves as an advocate (e.g., police off‌icers, youth workers,

counselors, etc.) to keep youth from potential negative

behaviors, school dropouts, delinquency, or academic

failure. DuBois and Karcher (2005) provide three character-

istics that a mentor should possess. First, they must be more

experienced than the mentee; second, they must provide

guidance to facilitate growth; third, the relationship

between the two must consist of an emotional connection.

As a mentor, off‌icers can re-enforce growth in youths

impacted by gun violence and assist with enhancing their

livelihood. However, previous research on police as

mentors argues that it is an unused source of support for men-

torship programs (Arter, 2006).

Conceptualization of mentoring is still evolving. As Le

Cornu and Ewing(2008) note, the emerging conceptualization

of mentoring is a “collegial learning relationship instead of an

expert, hierarchical one-way view”(p. 1803). Due to the

abstract conceptualization of the term “mentoring,”previous

research has focused on different outcomes when tryingto for-

mulate the concept.For example, previous research examining

the mentor-mentee relationship has focused on the mentor’s

perceptions of youth (Lakind et al., 2014, 2015), mentor char-

acteristics(Cho et al., 2011; Erdem & Aytemur,2008), mentee

perceptions (Clarke, 2017), and perception of mentors and

mentees (Fowler & O’Gorman, 2005). Focusing on mentor-

mentee relationships, however, overlooks such topics as

mentors’characteristics. Extant research has also not looked

at how off‌icers’approach to mentoring differs from each

other and impacts the mentorship process. Law enforcement

agencies could alsouse multiple strategies in the mentorship

and restructure their programs accordingly. Often, these pro-

grams seek police off‌icers’and parents’involvement to

better the program outcomes.

Historically, volunteers and individuals with social work

backgrounds served as a support system for mentoring pro-

grams (Arter, 2006). However, given the shortage of volun-

teers and adult role models, off‌icers can step in and serve

in a non-uniform capacity to support children through

one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring, or e-mentoring

(Arter, 2006; Rhodes et al., 2002). Previous research also

argues that f‌inding interested adults to give back to their com-

munity has become a challenge due to lack of interest, scarce

resources, and social networks within the community

(Sundeen et al., 2007). By allowing off‌icers to serve as

mentors in police-led organizations, youths in need of a

role model will be provided with one, off‌icers will have the

opportunity to experience the real lives of citizens living in

marginalized communities, and off‌icers will gain additional

insight into the issues that youths impacted by gun violence

face on a day-to-day basis. Through the mentorship

program, off‌icers will also interact with citizens from differ-

ent age groups, cultural backgrounds, and neighborhoods,

which can have negative or positive results.

136 American Review of Public Administration 54(2)