15 Police Psychology

Question 1

What are the ethics in policing?

Answer 1

Most police are highly ethical (but when some are unethical, the power they hold means they can be highly unethical)

Question 2

What did Justice James Wood conduct that there was?

Answer 2

“a state of systematic or entrenched corruption existed”

Question 3

Give reasons why some police engage in unethical behaviour

Answer 3

System supports corruption via

1. On the job socialisation: recruits are told to forget their training and learn how it is “really done” on the job. The acceptance of misdemeanours can escalate to acceptance of more serious violations
2. Peer Group reinforcement and encouragement of rule violations
3. The policing subculture and brotherhood: peer pressure and the desire to stick together and support each other encourages allowance of unethical behaviour
4. Demands of “results-style policing” compromise due process and pressure to close cases encourage corruption
5. Much police work is unsupervised and discretionary: hard to detect if you’re doing anything unethical

Question 4

Describe the AUS research on police ethics. What are the four studies conducted?

Answer 4

Study 1: Perceptions of ethical dilemmas
Study 2: Individual Perspectives On Police Ethics
Study 3: Practical ethics in the Police Service
Study 4: Public Perceptions of Professional Ethics

Question 5

What did the Perceptions of ethical dilemmas (Study 1) study find?

Answer 5

Purpose: Investigated attitudes towards breaches of ethics among police officers and recruits

Findings: ‘Typical officers’ were rates as viewing situations the least serious; on almost all incidents, recruits rated most serious and constables/senior constables as least serious; females gave more serious judgements of incidents

Question 6

What did Individual Perspectives on Police Ethics (Study 2) study find?

Answer 6

Purpose: Investigated individual officers’ training, knowledge and understanding of ethics in everyday policing situations

Findings: Junior officers reported receiving more ethics training than senior officers, although training was not viewed as relevant or practical; rules need to be written in a way that’s easier to understand

Question 7

What did Practical ethics in the Police Service (Study 3) study find?

Answer 7

Purpose: Investigated individual and organisational influences on ethical and unethical behaviour among police officers

Findings: estimated that 13-28% of police acts involve breaches of ethics
- Improve work conditions, selection, make ethics training more practice and improve supervision, reward those who display ethical behaviour and tolerate error

Question 8

What did Public Perceptions of Professional Ethics (Study 4) study find?

Answer 8

Purpose: recommendations were incorporated in the 1999 revised code of conduct

Findings: public perceptions of police improved (compared to other professions)
- complaints from police about unethical behaviour within the force have increased

Question 9

Define Police Discretion

Answer 9

The freedom that a police officer often has for deciding what should be done in any given situation

-Involves knowing when to enforce the law, and when to allow for some latitude

Question 10

When is police discretion commonly used for?

Answer 10

1. Youth Crime
2. Offenders with mental illness
3. Domestic violence
4. Use of force

Question 11

Explain when discretion used in terms of youth crime

Answer 11

• Don’t want to lock up youths with major criminals and increase their skills, encourage criminality and make them hate the police
• Responses include community referrals, resolution conferences, and arrests

Question 12

Explain when discretion used in terms of offenders with mental illness?

Answer 12

• Better responses are an informal resolution, escort to a psychiatric facility, or arrest -> 72% of cases end with informal result
• Problems with institutions lead to the frequent use of informal resolution and jail
• Often results in the criminalisation

Question 13

Explain when discretion used in terms of domestic violence?

Answer 13

• Historically, this was ignored by the police
• More recently they encourage arrests (as this reduces repeat offences) BUT the victim does not always want this, and sometimes both parties are fighting just as hard
• Better responses include separation and community referrals, and arrests

Question 14

Explain when discretion used in terms of use of force

Answer 14

• Has received much attention but only accounts for a small number of police-citizen interactions
• only 1.5% of police/civilian interactions involve force, only supposed to use it to suppress a situation

Question 15

List the factors influencing arrest decisions

Answer 15

• Seriousness of crime: more serious = more chance of arrest
• Strength of the evidence: more evidence or witness = more chance of arrest
• Whether the victim supports arrest: more the victim wants arrest = more chance of arrest
• Relationship between victim and offender: perpetrators who don’t know their victims get arrested more
• Degree of suspect resistance: more suspect resistance = more chance of arrest
• Race, gender, neighbourhood: certain races, genders and neighbourhoods (unfairly) targeted

Question 16

What is police stress?

Answer 16

Policing involves high levels of stress both on officers and their families

-Perception, responses, and coping strategies regarding stressors vary from officer to officer

Question 17

Discuss the sources of police stress

Answer 17

Occupational stress - (e.g. having to use a weapon)
Organisational stress - (e.g. paperwork)
Criminal justice stressors (e.g. frustration with court system)
Public stressors (e.g. uncooperative witnesses)

Question 18

Discuss the consequences of police stressors

Answer 18

1. Physical
   - Officers may be at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease and digestive disorder
   - High blood pressure, ulcers, weight gain and diabetes and other ailments that may develop
2. Psychological and personal
   - Mixed evidence, but stress may increase drinking and substance abuse, depression, anxiety, suicide, violence and marital problems
3. Job-related
   - consequences include poor morale, absenteeism, reduction in effectiveness, turnover, and early retirement
   - These problems may result from physical, psychological, or personal consequences of stress

Question 19

Discuss the prevention and management of police stress

Answer 19

Programs in place include:

• Physical fitness programs: exercise increase endorphins
• Professional counselling services: that are highly confidential
• Family assistance programs: help the family who is also stressed as well
• Teaching adaptive coping strategies
• Resiliency training
• Critical incident debriefings

Question 20

Elaborate on Resiliency training?

Answer 20

Training to improve the ability to effectively adapt to stress and adversity
-Typically involves: education about psychological and physiological symptoms of stress and techniques to manage stress

Resiliency training can improve job performance, health, and officer well-being

Question 21

Elaborate on Critical Incident Debriefings (CISD)

Answer 21

A group debriefing procedure in which members discuss the traumatic event in a controlled and rational environment

• one of the most commonly used
• there are many positives, BUT some research shows that CISD has no positive effects on PTSD levels, and may actually have a negative effect on psychological wellbeing

Question 22

What are the problematic stages of CISD?

Answer 22

Fact and reaction

Question 23

What does the research state about the fact phase?

Answer 23

Participants describe the event and reach consensus on what happened

Fact phase: where participants each describe their memories of the event witnesses

Hypothesis #1: discussing facts may lead to memory conformity

Question 24

What does the research state about the reaction phase?

Answer 24

Participants discuss the emotions they felt experiencing the trauma

Reaction phase: where participants discuss their emotions as they remember experiencing them during the height of the trauma

Hypothesis #2: discussing emotions may have a negative effect on psychological wellbeing

Question 25

What did the study by Whittle find?

Answer 25

Purpose: to determine the impact of two stages of CISD on psychological wellbeing and recall of the event

Found: no difference between conditions for a number of correct items recalled

• Those in fact-focused condition repeated MORE misinformation than other 2 groups and more intrusive thoughts than control conditions
• Those in emotion-based came up with more confabulated facts that weren’t in the video

Question 26

What does Police Discretion involve?

Answer 26

Police discretion involves knowing when to enforce the law and when to allow for some latitude. It is commonly used in some situations and there are advantages and disadvantages of its use

Question 27

What do the sources of police stress include?

Answer 27

They include organisational stressors, occupational stressors, criminal justice stressors, and public stressors. These stressors can have physical, psychological and occupational consequences

Question 28

To encourage police officers to act ethically what has to be done?

Answer 28

To encourage police officers to act ethically, the system must support this behaviour