RESULTS OF AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF ATTITUDES TO INTERPERSONAL TRUST AMONG CADETS OF HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The trust of police officers in other people, in contrast to the public’s trust in the police, is not often the subject of scientific research. The article is devoted to the study of attitudes to interpersonal trust among cadets of higher educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, which is justified as an indicator of their communicative competence, professional reliability and lack of professional and moral deformation. The article provides an overview and analysis of individual works devoted to the study of trust of law enforcement officers. An empirical study of interpersonal trust among cadets of higher educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in dynamics and in comparison with practical employees of Internal Affairs Bodies was conducted. The level of interpersonal trust was measured using modified Scales of interpersonal trust of J. Rotter and Confidence Scales of D. Yek and B. Rothstein. The results of the study revealed the optimal average level of interpersonal trust, corresponding to the indicators among students of civil universities. It is shown that the level of interpersonal trust during training at a higher educational institution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs remains relatively stable, which, on the one hand, indicates the absence of signs of professional and moral deformation, on the other hand, does not demonstrate the influence of the factor of training and education at a higher educational institution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, socialization and adaptation of young people to official activities in the Internal Affairs Bodies. A reasonable assumption is made that in the course of further service in practical Internal Affairs Bodies, the level of trust in the course of professionalization remains the same, while the level of distrust decreases. In comparison with practical employees of the Internal Affairs Bodies, who have the same expression of attitudes to trust and distrust (balance, equilibrium state), cadets are more likely to show a tendency to distrust than to trust. This is due to age characteristics (for example, youthful maximalism) and the presence of practical employees with more life and professional experience.