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Extending Law Enforcement Reach to Children Exposed to Violence: Police Training Evaluation

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Abstract

Failure to immediately identify and support children exposed to violence (CEV) places them at great risk for traumatic dysregulation and long-term mental health difficulties. Police officers are in a unique position to identify and assist CEV in the immediate aftermath of exposure. Yet, law enforcement professionals do not typically receive training tailored towards effectively identifying and responding to the emotional needs of CEV. Protecting and Serving is a police training curriculum based on over two decades of successful mental health and law enforcement collaboration. The current study examined 152 police officers’ perceptions of, attitudes toward, and understanding of the training delivered at six police departments. Pre- and post-training surveys assessed the current state of practice and the effectiveness of the program presentation in three content areas: knowledge, practice, and attitude. McNemar’s test was used to evaluate pre- to post-change, chi-square analyses and one-way ANOVAs were used to assess variation associated with demographic variables, and qualitative analysis was conducted by two independent judges. Findings reflect strong officer motivation, coupled with specific gaps in knowledge and practices. Post-training results demonstrate significant gains in all three content areas. Findings underscore the need and potential utility for specialized training designed to better equip officers to respond effectively to CEV.

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Funding

This research was supported by an American Psychological Foundation (APF) Visionary Funds Grant (14-004801) and by the contributions of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child Study Center, Yale, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Naama de la Fontaine, Hilary Hahn, Carla Smith Stover & Steven Marans

  2. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division, Safra Children’s Hospital, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Naama de la Fontaine

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  1. Naama de la Fontaine
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  2. Hilary Hahn
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  3. Carla Smith Stover
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  4. Steven Marans
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Contributions

N.D. and H.H. conceived of the presented project and oversaw implementation with the support from S.M. N.D. carried out data analysis in consultation with C.S. and wrote the manuscript with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Naama de la Fontaine.

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Ethical Approval

Study procedures were approved by Yale IRB; no procedures included human participants or animals subjects.

Conflict of Interest

Co-authors Hilary Hahn and Steven Marans are authors of the Protecting and Serving curriculum. Preliminary findings were presented at the 2016 International Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health, Amsterdam.

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de la Fontaine, N., Hahn, H., Stover, C.S. et al. Extending Law Enforcement Reach to Children Exposed to Violence: Police Training Evaluation. J Police Crim Psych 37, 68–79 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-021-09448-9

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