Literature in policing has mostly overlooked the antecedents of prejudice, especially those who choose a police career. Such a choice is important given the results of prejudice that might cause police misconduct toward regular migrants, irregular migrants, and refugees. This study aims to examine the factors that explain prejudice among police cadets toward other ethnic groups. This study’s data come from a survey of 725 police cadets in three police vocational schools in Turkey. We employed structural equation modeling to examine the antecedents of prejudice toward foreigners within the framework of intergroup threat theory. More specifically, in this study, we included factors such as anomie, authoritarianism, and nationalism and participants’ symbolic and realistic threat perceptions in shaping prejudice toward foreigners. The findings suggest that police cadets’ realistic threat perception was the most salient antecedent of prejudice toward foreigners.

警务文献大多忽略了偏见​​的前因，尤其是那些选择警察职业的人。考虑到偏见的结果可能导致警察对正常移民、非正常移民和难民的不当行为，这样的选择很重要。本研究旨在研究解释警察学员对其他族裔群体的偏见的因素。本研究的数据来自对土耳其三所警察职业学校的 725 名警察学员的调查。我们采用结构方程模型在群际威胁理论的框架内检查对外国人的偏见的前因。更具体地说，在这项研究中，我们纳入了诸如失范、威权主义和民族主义等因素，以及参与者对外国人形成偏见的象征性和现实威胁认知。