Working with a radical agenda: the Musasa project,Zimbabwe

In 1988, a nongovernmental organization, the Musasa Project, was created to combat domestic violence against women in Zimbabwe where such violence is not only widespread, it is also socially acceptable. Therefore, Musasa not only set up shelters and provided counseling to victims of domestic violence, it also attempted to transform society through an extensive public education campaign. This campaign started with the police force through an identification of the problems police officers had experienced in their dealings with domestic violence. Discussions of these problems led to changes in the ways in which victims are interviewed. The police officers also reported difficulties interacting with the legal system which were addressed through a series of workshops facilitated by Musasa for members of the police force and of the legal system. Whereas these actions were both radical and innovative, the project's public statements were cautious during the first 3 years. Since the time of a planned change in leadership (when the original founders withdrew according to schedule), the project has grown increasingly radical and now addresses gender issues through a series of gender workshops designed to expose the workings of the patriarchy and the problems associated with lobola (the bride price).     

Police interviews of sexual assault reporters: do attitudes matter?

Sexual assault is underreported in the United States. Survivors are often reluctant to make police reports for various reasons; one is fear of revictimization by criminal justice professionals. Conversely, police officers often lack skills for interviewing crime victims. Posttraumatic stress reactions among victims can exacerbate the problem. Although some victims prefer female interviewers, it is not known whether they are more skilled. A sample of 429 police officers completed a written survey testing their rape myth acceptance and knowledge of how to interview rape reporters. A significant relationship between rape myth acceptance and interviewing skill was discovered. Although officer gender was related to interviewing skill, the effect was mediated by rape myth acceptance. Specific officer behaviors related to high rape myth acceptance were identified. Implications for selection of police to conduct victim interviews were discussed.     

Precarity and structural racism in Black youth encounters with police

Youth experience increased surveillance by and involuntary contact with police officers compared with other age groups. Studies that explore the experiences of youth during these encounters are scant and focus on youth with criminal histories. This research aims to explore the experiences of college-attending youth between 18 and 24 years old in two southern states. The study was designed and conducted according to the tenets of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Twelve Black youth were recruited and interviewed between April 2015 and April 2016. Three superordinate themes (and subthemes) were identified: (1) negative feelings towards the police; (2) precarity of police encounters (subthemes: police as a threat to welfare; it could be me; steps to follow during police encounters; behavior is irrelevant) and; (3) police response is part of structural racism (subthemes: racism is everywhere; media contributes to racism). The importance of these findings for social work practice and research will be discussed.     

An evaluation of traumatic and organizational experiences on the psychological health of New Zealand police recruits

Police officers face the occupational hazard of repeated exposure to traumatic stressors. Additionally, as for employees of any large organization, they are subjected to routine organizational stressors in the workplace. Although police work is generally believed to be inherently stressful, very little is known of the impact of the police organization upon officers' psychological well-being. This study evaluated the impact on psychological health of both traumatic and organizational police experiences. Baseline measures of prior traumatic experiences, and psychological health were established at point of entry for 512 police recruits. One year later, the impact of police related trauma and organizational events was assessed. Multiple regression analyses determined that while both traumatic events and organizational stressors affected psychological distress, organizational stressors had the strongest effect, including the exacerbation of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder symptoms. The main implication of these findings is that traumatic stress is a hazard for police officers, but the importance of daily organizational stressors must also be taken into account.     

The role of law enforcement in schools: the Virginia experience--a practitioner report

Although there has been little academic research on the impact of placing police officers in schools, this practice has grown substantially in response to school shootings and other violent crimes in schools. With a standardized training program since 1999, the state of Virginia has law enforcement officers working in approximately 88 percent of Virginia's 631 secondary schools. Based on this experience, the state training coordinator describes how police officers should be selected and prepared to work as school resource officers. The success of school-based law enforcement requires careful selection and specialized training of officers who can adapt to the school culture and work collaboratively with school authorities.     

Policing Disaster: An Analytical Review of the Literature on Policing,Disaster, and Post‐traumatic Stress Disorder

A large body of research findings suggests that law‐enforcement officers are confronted with erratic, periodic, and unpredictable high‐stress experiences in the line of duty. There is also an increasing amount of research on police as first responders to disasters and their mental health. Recent high‐stress events, like the social disorder generated by Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and the violence at Newtown, created a unique matrix for stressors on police officers who may not have had much training to deal with the associated disorder or much social support to draw upon when confronting the residual emotional and mental traumas that they experienced as a result. In this context, we conduct an analytical review of the literature on police stress in instances in which officers have responded to disasters. Moreover we discuss the extant research related to rates of post‐traumatic stress disorder, the effects of PTSD and related diagnoses on the personal and professional lives of officers, and the sources of social support available to them in the aftermath of trauma‐inducing events. We conclude with a summary of current research and a critique of what is missing in the literature including attention to subclinical PTSD, proper training, the lack of attention to institutional screening for PTSD vulnerability, and the dearth of evaluation research on “what works” in disaster preparedness for police officers.     

What really happened? A validation study of rape survivors' help-seeking experiences with the legal and medical systems

Much of what is known about rape survivors' experiences with the legal and medical systems has come from victims' accounts; rarely have researchers collected "the other side of the story" to find out what system personnel say did or did not happen in these interactions. In the current study, rape survivors who sought emergency medical care were interviewed before their hospital discharge about what services they received and how they were treated by social system personnel. Corresponding accounts were then collected from doctors, nurses, and police officers. There was significant interrater reliability between the survivors and legal and medical system personnel regarding what services were or were not provided ("service delivery") and if system personnel engaged in "secondary victimization" behaviors (i.e., statements/actions that could be distressing to victims). However, police officers and doctors significantly underestimated the impact they were having on survivors. Victims reported significantly more post-system-contact distress than service providers thought they were experiencing.     

Enhancing knowledge of adolescent mental health among law enforcement: Implementing youth-focused crisis intervention team training

This study explores the feasibility, acceptability, fidelity, and outcomes of a youth version of the Crisis Intervention Team training (CIT-Y). This intervention is designed to keep youth with a mental health problem out of the criminal/legal system by equipping police officers with developmentally appropriate information and techniques. Whereas much is known about the adult-focused CIT training, little is known about the youth-focused training. This preliminary investigation uses multiple methods (training observations, officer interviews, and pre/post-tests) to assesses the implementation of CIT-Y in two Midwest counties. Multiple 8-hour training sessions were offered in both counties with 127 officers participating and completing the pre/post measure. The findings of this study confirmed that CIT-Y training was feasible in these counties and acceptable to the officers who participated. Outcomes from the pre/post-tests show that 86% of officers positively changed their knowledge and attitudes regarding youth with mental health problems. Interviews revealed a positive impact on officers’ reported behaviors. While this preliminary investigation of CIT-Y showed positive outcomes, recommendations for enhancing the curriculum and subsequent research are discussed.     

The Remains of the Workday: Impact of Job Stress and Exhaustion on Marital Interaction in Police Couples

We examined the impact of job stress and physical exhaustion on the physiological and subjective components of emotional responding during marital interactions between 19 male police officers and their spouses. Couples completed 30‐day stress diaries and participated in 4 weekly laboratory interaction sessions. During interactions on days of greater stress, both spouses were more physiologically aroused, husbands reported less positive and more negative emotion, and wives reported less emotion (both positive and negative). On days of greater exhaustion, husbands were more physiologically aroused. All of these findings are indicators of heightened risk for poor marital outcomes and thus document an emotional mechanism by which job stress and exhaustion can negatively impact marriage.     

Voices of 9/11 First Responders: Patterns of Collective Resilience

The aim of the ethnographic research reported here was to increase knowledge concerning the values and social and emotional characteristics of 9/11 responders in order to benefit others in subsequent manmade disasters. The research is based on a series of in-depth interviews conducted with ground zero first responders; firefighters, police officers, fire and police chaplains, and media persons. The materials that emerged from the study indicate that psychodynamic concepts, such as post-traumatic stress, may be too individualistically formulated to take into account the significant factors that acted as the basis for the resilience of these responders.     

Disparate Levels of Stress in Police and Correctional Officers: Preliminary Evidence from a Pilot Study on Domestic Violence

New data from a prevention curriculum project on officer-involved domestic violence reveals significant differences in the reported job stress of Florida's correctional officers when compared to police officers who took the same surveys. The significantly higher reported levels of organizational stress in particular—especially those related to staff and resource shortages and attitudes about leadership—raise concerns about the relationship between organizational stress and the reported drastic budget cuts, hiring freezes, and layoffs experienced by the Department of Corrections in 2009. The surprising disparity has significant implications for policy makers, who should be aware of the high cost of stress in officer health and well-being when making budgetary decisions about the state's rapidly increasing inmate population.     

Side-by-side: An evaluation of Connecticut’s police and youth interaction model

This study evaluated a community-based intervention program designed to promote positive youth development and to create positive interactions between police and youth in a non-enforcement environment. A pre–post-design was used to compare the results of the program for participating youth and police officers, particularly changes in each group’s attitudes toward the other. The results showed that participation in the program improved police officers’ and youths’ attitudes toward each other. For youth, the rate of change in attitudes was greatest for minority youth and for youth who had prior negative experience with the police. That is, youth who had negative prior experiences with police and began with negative attitudes toward police developed more positive attitudes toward police as a result of participating in the program. Furthermore, having opportunities for positive interactions between police and youth played an important role in decreasing negative perceptions of police for ethnic minority youth. This study suggests that community-based programs that involve police with youth can improve participants’ attitude toward each other, which might impact future interactions.     

Does a helping hand put others at risk?: affirmative action,police departments,and crime

Will increasing the number of minority and women police officers make law enforcement more effective by drawing on abilities that have gone untapped and creating better contact with communities and victims? Or will standards have to be lowered too far before large numbers of minorities and women can be hired? Using cross‐sectional time‐series data for U.S. cities for 1987, 1990, and 1993, I find that hiring more black and minority police officers increases crime rates, but this apparently arises because lower hiring standards involved in recruiting more minority officers reduces the quality of both new minority and new nonminority officers. The most adverse effects of these hiring policies have occurred in the areas most heavily populated by blacks. There is no consistent evidence that crime rates rise when more women are hired, and this raises questions about whether norming tests or altering their content to create equal pass rates is preferable. The article examines how the changing composition of police departments affects such measures as the murder of and assaults against police officers.     

Applying a US Police Integrity Measurement Tool to the Eritrean Context: Perceptions of Top-Level Eritrean Police Officers Regarding Police Misconduct

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of data from a police integrity measurement survey administered to 107 top-level Eritrean police officers. Respondents were asked for their opinions regarding the seriousness of police misconduct, disciplinary action recommended, and their willingness to report fellow police officers engaged in such misconduct. The surveyed police officers considered some types of misconduct (e.g. off-duty work and accepting gifts) to be significantly less serious than others (e.g. opportunistic thefts from crime scenes and bribery). The findings suggest that the greater the seriousness of the offence, the more likely the officers were to recommend more severe disciplinary action. The survey evidence also indicates that, for six of the ten police misconduct cases, the majority of the respondents revealed they would report the misconduct, which suggests the police code of silence in the context of the Eritrean policing environment is weak.     

Rescaling the Sanctuary City: Police and Non‐Status Migrants in Ontario,Canada

Canadian cities pledge to provide access to municipal services to non‐status migrants and withhold information identifying non‐status migrants from federal immigration authorities. Despite these promises, local police continue to cooperate with the Canada Border Services Agency, which raises questions about the capacity of cities to honour their promises. An empirical study involved interviews with high‐ranking police officers in eight local jurisdictions in Ontario about police perceptions regarding their role in the enforcement of federal immigration law and their obligations to honour sanctuary‐city policies. The results show that many police officers believe they possess legal authority to report non‐status migrants to federal authorities. We suggest that this belief rests on misconceptions about the relationship between criminal law and immigration law, claims of jurisdictional immunity from municipal government, and distortions of the principles of policing in Canada. Rescaling of sanctuary policies to the provincial level may offer solutions.     

Conditions leading to collective negotiations among police

The number of cities that negotiate collectively with their police officers has grown rapidly in recent decades, but union penetration has been uneven. This paper tries to identify some of the factors which led to collective negotiations. A model designed to predict formal negotiations is tested using both logit and discriminant analysis. The results indicate that environmental factors and dissatisfaction with working conditions are significant influences on unionization. Far less important is the desire to maintain salaries above market levels. Evidence of state enabling laws contribute little to overall prediction once other factors are considered.     

Exploring Minority Youths’ Police Encounters: A Qualitative Interpretive Meta-synthesis

Recent deaths by police of unarmed minority youth have raised important questions about the nature and outcomes of involuntary minority youth-police encounters. Youth are the most surveilled group of Americans and minority youth frequently live in neighborhoods disproportionately targeted for proactive policing (i.e., using broad police discretion to “target” those most likely to be engaged in criminal activity before criminal acts become apparent). Understanding the experiences of minority youth who encounter police officers is of critical concern for social workers in many practice and research areas. Social workers must examine how a minority person’s perceptions are formed through repeated, frequent, involuntary encounters with the police. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis was to capture these experiences through the voices of minority youth in recounting their contacts with the police. Four themes were identified: dangerous, controlling, prejudiced, and ineffective. Further reduction of these themes resulted in an overarching theme that captures the essences of these youth’s experiences: dehumanization. These results enhance understanding of minority youth experience with police officers and, thus, inform social work advocacy efforts around this issue in both practice and research arenas.     

Policing “Domestic Disturbances” in Small Towns and Rural Communities: Implications for Officer and Victim Safety

Drawing on Canadian police data on homicide involving domestic dispute calls from 1960 to the present (n = 20), as well as on in‐depth interviews with police officers (n = 33) working in rural and remote communities, the authors reexamine the argument that police attendance at domestic disturbance calls can pose a special threat to officer safety. Although some scholarship suggests that purported risks have been overstated, the authors argue that location may be a critical factor in reducing or heightening not only risks to officers, but also to victims. Although intended as an exploratory work, situated within the context of cultural support for domestic violence in rural communities, the authors raise both interesting policy implications, as well as potential avenues for future research. En partant de données de la police canadienne sur les homicides impliquant des disputes familiales de 1960 à nos jours (n = 20), ainsi que sur des entrevues en profondeur avec des agents policiers (n = 33) travaillant dans des régions rurales et des communautés éloignées, les auteurs ré‐examinent l'argument voulant que les interventions policières lors d'appels liés à des problèmes domestiques posent un risque spécial pour les agents policiers. Même si certains spécialistes suggèrent que ces risques sont exagérés, les auteurs affirment que le lieu pourrait être un facteur important par rapport au niveau de risque pour les agents policiers, ainsi que les victimes. Même s'il s'agit d'une recherche exploratoire, se situant dans le contexte du soutient culturel de la violence domestique dans les communautés rurales, les auteurs s'intéressent à la fois aux implications en termes de gestion et aux directions possibles en termes de recherches futures.     

Work and family: Understanding men's role evaluations

Analysis of data provided by a random sample (N=92) of married police officers was used to evaluate the effects of time constraints, job stress, family strengths, family structure, and social networks on men's role evaluations. These men had generally positive evaluations of their income provider, husband, father, and home care roles. Multivariate analysis showed complex relationships between work, family, and network conditions and men's evaluations of their roles. Commuting time, job stress, family strengths, number of children, kin available, friends available and contact with friends effected role evaluations. The centrality of family roles for these men and the patterns of personal gain they received did not support stereotypic images of men's family relationships.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, November, 1985. I wish to thank Kuo-Liang Lin for his able assistance, and Robert A. Lewis and Fred Piercy for their helpful comments.Karen Altergott received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of Minnesota, and is currently Assistant Professor of Family Studies at Purdue University. Areas of research include family relations and social networks across the life course, comparative family studies, and family gerontology. Send correspondence to Dr. Altergott at Family Research Institute, 525 Russell Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907.     

Examining the impact of external influences on police use of deadly force over time

Prior deadly force research has sought to identify appropriate mechanisms that can effectively control police officers' decisions to use deadly force. However, the relative impact of external discretion control policies on police shooting behavior remains largely unknown. Using data from Philadelphia for a period of more than two decades, this article employs interrupted time-series analysis (ARIMA) to examine the impact of legislation and judicial intervention on use of deadly force by Philadelphia police officers. The article also considers the impact of larger, community-level characteristics on levels of deadly force. Findings produced modest support for the potential effect of external discretion control policies and community-level factors on police shooting behavior but generally suggest that dynamic changes in the internal working environment can outweigh the influence of the external mechanisms.