Current scholarship suggests attention should be focused on differences in specific job-related conditions to understand help-seeking behavior among police officers. This project examines how officers’ feelings of department satisfaction and on-the-job emotions may be associated with trust in members of the community they police. Specifically, officers were asked to report trust levels both in a general

Empirical research has found that the rise in national attention and criticism toward American law enforcement in the wake of Ferguson (i.e., summer 2014 and beyond) has negatively influenced police officers’ perceptions and behavior. Yet, there is variation in how officers have viewed motivation, morale, and proactivity in the post-Ferguson era. Building on previous work and integrating the “media

Piquerism, the sexual gratification yielded from the infliction of cutting, stabbing, and slicing wounds, remains an under-researched sexual paraphilic disorder with consequences for understanding, identification, detection, case linkage, and offender treatment. To help remedy that research deficit, a detailed case analysis is presented of a series of ‘ripper’ homicides to demonstrate common crime

Most studies of confession during police interrogation have looked at the influence of various individual factors on the prevalence and probability of confession, neglecting potential interactions between factors and the possibility of combined influence on the suspect’s decision to confess or not. To bridge this gap, the present study proposes using a profile-based approach, rather than the much more

We sought to catalog ways in which law enforcement personnel (LEP) interact with sexual and gender minority (SGM) people and identify LEP behaviors associated with positive and negative SGM experiences. In Study 1, 160 SGM individuals from one community responded to open-ended survey questions in which they described positive and negative experiences with LEP. Qualitative content analysis yielded three

Criminal investigative work entails a diverse array of tasks and responsibilities, ranging from interviewing suspects and victims to managing the paperwork and necessary follow-ups for each case. The present study sought to evaluate the workload and workload impacts of police investigators in a metropolitan police agency. The NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), a well-established human factor measure

Police officers face a variety of occupational (e.g., job dissatisfaction) and operational (e.g., exposure to suffering) stressors because of their work, making them vulnerable to challenges with psychological well-being (Johnson et al. in J Manag Psycho 20(2):178–196, 2005). Social support is known to offset repercussions resulting from high stress (Hansson et al. in J Police Crim Psycho 32(2):128–137

Police Psychology examines the latest research in psychology applied to the criminal justice system. Paulo Barbosa Marques and Mauro Paulino collaborated and brought together a diverse group of researchers, academics, and working professionals to cover and update the most recent and important aspects surrounding police psychology. With topics covering PTSD, law enforcement culture, and many of the

Guidelines encourage organizations to have policies that permit opportunities for retesting in selection. However, the implications of retesting have only been explored in limited contexts. The current study investigated promotional assessment scores across three repeated administrations at a highway patrol agency. Within-person analyses indicated that scores on the promotional assessment increased

Many police departments across the USA have implemented some form of crisis intervention training. This training is modeled after Memphis’ 40 h Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Training, a core component of their flagship CIT Program, and is designed, in part, to teach officers about the nature of mental illness as well as effective strategies for deescalating potentially volatile interactions. Some

Using the current empirical landscape of police responses to people in mental health crisis as a backdrop, this methods paper makes an argument for the central role of collaborative co-design and production by diverse community experts and stakeholders to build transformative specialized training for frontline officers. Subject matter experts (SMEs) from across key domains participated in focus groups

Despite a growing body of research, there is no systematic body of evidence that establishes the rigour of existing measures of stress among police. The aim of this scoping review was to investigate (1) the diversity of stress measures used in police research and (2) the psychometric properties of such measures and the ways in which they are utilised. The systematic literature search discovered 16

Jailhouse informants are thought to be one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. The current studies examined community members’ (E1: N = 99; E2: N = 289) willingness to provide false testimony as a jailhouse informant. In E1, participants were all presented a first offer (1-year sentence reduction) to testify as a jailhouse informant. Those who declined were presented up to three additional

Personality tests are frequently administered during the process of hiring police officers. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) is one of the most widely used instruments in the selection of candidates. Pre-employment MMPI-2 scores have also been used to predict police misconduct and early termination of police officers. This study looked at the predictive ability of the immaturity

Crime linkage is a systematic way of assessing behavioural or physical characteristics of crimes and considering the likelihood they are linked to the same offender. This study builds on research in this area by replicating existing studies with a new type of burglar known as optimal foragers, who are offenders whose target selection is conducted in a similar fashion to foraging animals. Using crimes

Predatory behavior is a complex forensic concern that requires an interdisciplinary response. Predatory behavior does not occur as a single act. It is a course of conduct that can begin in trivial or even unnoticed actions and develop into pursuit-type behaviors. Predators can escalate their attention toward their focus of interest in a manner that becomes dangerous and overt. The myriad of ways that

Hostage and crisis negotiators are specialist police officers utilised internationally by police forces to resolve hostage and crisis incidents. Whilst the role has been heavily documented in some parts of the world (namely the United States of America), there is a lack of literature relating to the organisational and operational processes and procedures in place for police negotiators in the United

Skillfully presenting evidence/information to suspects is one of the few interviewing techniques that increases the likelihood of guilty suspects providing information or making a confession, without making innocent ones do so as well. It is important that this evidence/information is correct, since deliberately disclosing incorrect evidence poses some risks. Also, in real-life interviews, police interviewers

Male-on-male sexual assaults challenge prevention and response personnel, law enforcement, and the military justice system. Before this study, limited research on military sex offender populations and none specifically on military male-on-male offenders was conducted. In this exploratory study, 171 cases of penetrative male-on-male sexual assaults were examined using criminal investigation files provided

The paper reports a study space analysis (SSA) of 117 published investigations of the need for interpretation services and approaches to their optimisation. The study explores literature on the adequacy and ecological validity of interpretation service and interpretation optimisation. Research on rapport building appears to be the most investigated issue. Studies on interpretation services need and

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more than 125,000 sexual assaults were reported to the police annually from 2015 to 2018. The number of crimes reported represents a small portion of the sexual assault victims experience each year and significant numbers of cases that are reported “fall out” of the system at different decision points. This is known as case attrition, and research has

Interviews with suspects are vital to criminal investigations. Globally, they are generally separated into either information gathering or accusatorial models. In England and Wales, while laboratory-based research has been increasingly undertaken, fewer studies examining actual police interviews have been conducted (despite interviews with suspects being mandatorily tape recorded there for 30 years)

Studies have shown that it is possible to link serial crimes in an accurate fashion based on the statistical analysis of crime scene information. Logistic regression (LR) is one of the most common statistical methods in use and yields relatively accurate linking decisions. However, some research suggests there may be added value in using classification tree (CT) analysis to discriminate between offences

In the UK, witnesses with a mental health disorder are considered ‘vulnerable’ by the Criminal Justice System and consequently eligible for support within the Achieving Best Evidence guidance (recommendations produced in England and Wales to assist criminal justice practitioners in supporting vulnerable, intimidated and significant witnesses during the criminal justice process). However, it is unclear

Using a policing student sample (N = 38) in a quasi-experimental research design, we examined whether a short training course on the PEACE model of investigative interviewing would impact mock interview performance and whether this impact would vary with individual differences. Interview performance was assessed via seven measures: (1) interviewee perception scale, (2) interviewer behavior scale, (3)

Three general interlinked areas have been the focus of offender profiling research: individual differentiation (establishing differences between the behavioral actions of crime scene types), behavioral consistency (understanding behavioral patterns across a series of crimes), and offender profiling (linking sub-types of crime scene patterns to the most likely characteristics of an offender). Taken

Police officers are subjected, daily, to critical incidents and work-related stressors that negatively impact nearly every aspect of their personal and professional lives. They have resisted openly acknowledging this for fear of being labeled. This research examined the deleterious outcomes on the mental health of police officers, specifically on the correlation between years of service and change

The traditional prevailing perspectives on attitudes assume that attitudes, once formed, are relatively stable over time. However, research has revealed that attitudes may be influenced by different factors that may change them. The present pre-post-test study aims to understand if the police recruits’ attitudes towards offenders change after police training and analyse the impact of sociodemographic

The crime and place literature has consistently emphasized the importance of understanding spatial patterns of crime using increasingly smaller spatial units of analysis. Despite the growing number of studies that have used this perspective, very few of them have investigated sexual offenses specifically. The current study uses police event data to investigate the spatial distribution of sexual offenses

This three-wave study examined the training-to-work transfer process of a self-leadership skills training programme for crime scene investigators working for the Dutch police force. The transfer process is complex and depends on numerous factors. Two important steps forward are taken in the present study. First, we take into account all transfer steps in one study to gain insights into the transfer

Historically, few resources exist for law enforcement that promote mental wellness in officers, leaving departments deficient in how to promote such an important aspect of wellness. Failure to promote and engage in mental health programs for law enforcement can result in mentally unwell officers. An unhealthy officer potentially poses a risk not only to himself but also to his fellow officers and the

First responders (e.g. police, firefighters, paramedics) experience significant and varied stressors in their personal and professional lives (Carleton et al. 2018a, Carleton et al. 2018b) and may be more vulnerable to psychological problems as a result (Komarovskaya et al. 2011). The use of support canines aids in mitigating psychological distress (Krause-Parello and Morales 2018); however, scant

The service of specialized and special forces of the Federal Armed Forces and police is characterized by complex situations. Such personnel often face numerous difficulties and extreme danger and experience periods of high stress when fulfilling their tasks. In the context of social and technological changes, it is necessary to explore the individual components of stress management in further detail

New policing technologies have generated solutions to many policing issues. In particular, portable camera systems (in-car or body-worn) have been offered as a tool to address the issue of police excessive use of force. It has been argued that police camera systems increase transparency in law enforcement and deter both police officers and citizens from engaging in undesirable behaviors during encounters

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) are at increased risk for sleep disorders relative to the general population. Common LEO occupational stressors, including critical incidents and shift work, predict sleep disturbance, which in turn negatively impacts health, performance, and community safety. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System-Sleep Disturbance 4-item (PROMIS SD4) was developed

Numerous miscarriages of justice have come to light in Indonesia that result from poor police interviewing practices. In response, Indonesian police are developing training in cognitive interviewing (CI), which serves as an international benchmark for witness interviewing practices. However, little is known about how Indonesian police investigators perceive different witness interviewing practices

Previous studies of the geographical and temporal features of serial sex offenses are limited by small samples and/or geographical areas, and are dated. We address a significant gap in the literature by investigating the temporal and geographical proximity of the crimes of 402 serial stranger sex offenders in the UK. Periods of incarceration were extracted from calculations of temporal proximity giving

Police working in sexual assault and child abuse investigation may be at risk of secondary trauma effects and burnout, particularly if they do not have protective mechanisms in place. Empathy has shown to be vital in protecting against secondary trauma and burnout, as well as enhancing compassion satisfaction. The current cross-sectional study surveyed 216 Australian police participants working in

The role of police officers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is challenging, faced with the difficult task of keeping communities safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19 while putting their physical and mental health at risk. Emerging evidence points to the stress experiences of officers during the COVID-19 pandemic. With cases now surpassing 174 million and close to four million deaths

Circuit Breaker measures were implemented in Singapore on 7 April 2020, and work from home arrangements were officially made compulsory for most due to COVID-19. This study assessed the effects of prolonged telecommuting within the Singapore Police. Items on productivity, satisfaction with telecommuting, work-life effectiveness, feelings of safety, stress levels, connectedness to and support by colleagues

Intimate partner violence (IPV) accounts for a large proportion of police calls for service and criminal offenses in most jurisdictions and families often experience significant harm from these incidents. In an effort to rationally allocate investigative resources, police departments are turning to risk assessment scales to identify suspects and victims at greatest risk for further incidents. The existing

Public safety personnel (PSP), including police officers, often work in high-stress environments that expose them to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTE). As a result, PSP are at a higher risk than most other occupational roles for the development of new or worsening mental health concerns, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder, general or social anxiety

This article aimed to investigate the dark side of leadership behavior on counterproductive work behavior with the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and moderating effect of organizational cynicism. This study applied a PLS-SEM partial least square structural equation modeling technique to test the hypotheses on a sample of 345 police personnel of Pakistan. The results of this study indicate a

Recent experimental results suggest that when police officers smile, the public will react with enhanced perceptions of those officers. However, emotional labor theory suggests that organizationally mandated emotional displays such as smiling exact costs to the individual worker. We use data from a 2020 national survey to test effects of emotional labor—display rules, surface acting, and deep acting—on

Little is known about the psychological and physiological impacts of moral injury within organizational contexts such as Internet Child Abuse Teams (hereafter abbreviated to ICAT), who are repeatedly exposed to trauma through viewing and grading graphic images of children being sexually abused. The aims of the current research were to explore the key features of, and contributing factors to, moral

Psychological heuristics are an adaptive part of human cognition, helping us operate efficiently in a world full of complex stimuli. However, these mental shortcuts also have the potential to undermine the search for truth in a criminal investigation. We reviewed 30 social science research papers on cognitive biases in criminal case evaluations (i.e., integrating and drawing conclusions based on the

Eyewitness testimony is a common form of evidence in criminal cases (Wells and Olson Annu Rev Psychol 54:277–295 2003); however, inconsistencies in eyewitness reports are frequent (Brewer and Wells Curr Dir Psychol Sci 20:24–27 2011). This research examined the influence of eyewitness consistency, in combination with relevant case factors, across two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the effect of

The potential influence of eyewitnesses’ metacognitions on identification decisions when confronted with a police lineup is largely unexplored. In two experiments, we investigated whether eyewitnesses’ pre-lineup memory strength inferences influenced the likelihood of their choosing from a lineup. In experiment 1, manipulating witnesses’ memory strength inferences, while holding memory encoding and

The lack of robust mental health programs throughout the USA has resulted in police frequently being responsible for responding to calls about people with mental illness who are in crisis. Working with people with mental illness as offenders or as individuals needing emergency assistance is a regular part of the job for many in law enforcement, yet specialized training is not a regular part of most

The majority of geographical profiling research focuses on the relationship between offender and location, which works particularly well when a burial site is known. In real-world investigations, however, burial or dump sites are often not known. The aim of the current paper is to outline a relatively under-used method of geographic profiling: Winthropping. While the method has been around for several

Motiveless homicides are usually defined as homicides in which a victim is killed by an offender and a motive was not determined by the police investigation. Motiveless does not mean that the police do not know the motive for the homicide, but rather that no other motive could accurately and objectively explain the reason for why the homicide occurred. However, this is especially problematic for the

The present study examined the relationship between police operational stress and emotional intelligence. The study also observed the difference in operational stress and emotional intelligence concerning gender, rank, education, and marital status. The sample included 80 police officers from Bangalore, India. The operational police stress questionnaire developed by McCreary and Thompson (2006) and

We compared burnout levels among correctional officers in a security prison as opposed to correctional officers in a criminal prison. Unlike criminal prisons, security prisons are typified by terrorist activity. The prisoners in the criminal prison have been sentenced to long periods due to severe criminal offenses, high criminal involvement, and many unusual offenses, while security prisons are occupied

Lethal force training incorporates a wide variety of methods to prepare an individual for a potential use of force encounter. Although many efforts aim to increase realism through stress, there is a critical aspect of lethal force training that does not often receive careful attention or intervention: target design. Realistic targets are essential to simulating a threat assessment that could prompt

Multiple levels of risks threat police officers and others’ safeties. From monitoring social events to responding to criminal actions, officers’ abilities to cope to stress are in challenged constantly. Stressful events continuously impact officers’ physical and emotional well-being in detriment of acquiring healthy behaviors or of caring for their physical or mental hygiene. When police activities

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) experience stressful and traumatic events more often than the general population. Though these events negatively impact mental health and wellbeing, LEOs experience barriers to seeking psychological therapy and support to address these emotional burdens. This scoping review asks the question “What are the factors preventing law enforcement officers from seeking mental