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East Tennessee State University

Teachers or "Real" Police Officers?: A Study of DARE Officers in Northeast Tennessee.

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>Most studies of the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (DARE) program evaluate the program’s effectiveness; this thesis instead examines the police officers who implement the program. Based on interviews with 12 DARE officers in the Northeast region of Tennessee, the thesis explores how members of this special category of police officers identify themselves. The DARE officer interviews were compared with published literature on conventional police officers. All DARE officers interviewed defined themselves as police officers but did little to no actual police work, nor were they viewed by patrol officers as “real” police officers. Instead, DARE officers functioned primarily as educators. In order to maintain their identity as police officers, DARE officers employed the use of props. These props presented the visual image of a police officer and, therefore, allowed DARE officers to define themselves as such.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
MA (Master of Arts)
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis - unrestricted
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Sociology
Year dc:date.issued
2005

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Commons, Jennifer Lynne

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Copyright by the authors.

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/985
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-2142

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
East Tennessee State University
Base URL
dc.etsu.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Commons, Jennifer Lynne. Teachers or "Real" Police Officers?: A Study of DARE Officers in Northeast Tennessee.. Thesis - unrestricted thesis, 2005. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/985