Most prior research shows that the primary determinants of police officers' job satisfaction are the officers' individual traits, such as age, gender, education, and rank (or years of service), work environment and workplace conditions. However, relatively few studies have focused on neighborhood contexts that influence levels of job satisfaction among police officers. In addition, most prior inquiries have been limited to Western societies. To extend the knowledge of police officers' job satisfaction, this study examines the neighborhood contexts that influence job satisfaction among police officers in South Korea using the self-reported survey data (2006) from Korean National Police Agency, official crime data (2006), and Korean census data (2000). More specifically, the current study seeks to fill the theoretical and methodological gaps in prior research on job satisfaction research by: (1) incorporating theoretically relevant neighborhood- and organizational-level predictors into the analysis; (2) employing a multilevel analysis (i.e., hierarchical linear model) to examine the impacts of neighborhood contexts on job satisfaction and test cross-level effects of both individual and neighborhood factors, or both individual and organizational variables on job satisfaction simultaneously; and (3) examining the external validity of existing information regarding the roles of individual, organizational, and neighborhood characteristics on job satisfaction among South Korean police officers.The results from a series of hierarchical linear models revealed that neighborhood-level immigrant concentration was significantly and negatively associated with job satisfaction. However, violent crime rate, concentrated disadvantage, and residential instability were not significantly related to job satisfaction. Moreover, none of the organization-level predictors (workload, department size, and divisions) had significant effects on levels of individual officers' job satisfaction. At the individual level, the results also confirmed that female, experienced and higher ranking officers reported a higher level of job satisfaction compared to male, inexperienced, and lower ranking officers. Interestingly, work type and assignment were also found to be significant predictors of job satisfaction. These individual, organizational, and neighborhood factors, however, had limited explanatory power for job satisfaction. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
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