Police and Psychology

Question 1

3 Policing Major Duties

Answer 1

1. Enforcing the law (spend the least time doing this)
2. Maintaining order
3. Providing services

Question 2

Policing Philosophies and Strategies

There are four of these

Answer 2

Based on the belief that crime can be effectively dealt with through an organized, strategic approach. It does not deal with the crime reduction/re-distribution issue.

Zero Tolerance Policing
Problem-Oriented Policing
Community-Oriented Policing
CompStat

Question 3

Zero Tolerance Policing

Answer 3

Zero Tolerance policing is a policing strategy that focuses on taking a hard-line approach to disorder and minor crime. It is usually put in place when a community is thought to be out of control, in fear and high in crime. 
Based on:
1. Enforcement 
2.Community ownership and pride
3. Less fear of crime
4. Message to offenders

Question 4

Challenges with Zero Tolerance Policing

Answer 4

1. Negative impact on police relations: due to aggressive enforcement
2. Potential to increase crime in the long run: due to increased records of arrest for individuals. If you start getting 6 parking tickets, then they start to feel as if they may as well just go for it.
3. Disproportionate impact on poor and culturally diverse communities

Question 5

Problem-Oriented Policing

Answer 5

Problem-Oriented Policing is a policing strategy that was born out of the ineffectiveness of “responsive policing”. It involves the identification and analysis of specific crime and disorder and the implementation of a strategy to address it. It is thought that police are in the best position to identify these problems and it should be a part of their day to day activities.

Question 6

Assumptions of POP

and analogy

Answer 6

POP assumes an incorporation of problem-solving as a normal part of a police officer’s day-to-day activity and assumes that this problem-solving activity can identify underlying conditions, fashion effective responses and eliminate the underlying cause. Similar to the work of a GP

Question 7

SARA Model

Answer 7

Scanning – in which officers pay particular attention to a variety of incident calls in order to try and identify a common thread across them

Analysis – in which officers are tasked with gathering additional information about the series of incidents from a variety of sources (e.g., other police data, probation, housing authority) in order to identify the core underlying condition. Most important step. Often based on the “crime triangle” framework which suggests that crime events should be analyzed according to victims, offenders, and problem areas (e.g., opportunity).

Response – officers are encouraged to develop a strategic response to positively impact the underlying condition and to include other “partners” in their efforts.

Assessment – involves officers evaluating whether the strategy was successful.

Question 8

Community-Oriented Policing

Answer 8

COP is a policing strategy that is based on:

• The realisation that police cannot deal with crime by themselves, the community must play a role
• The belief that there is a direct link between physical disorder, social disorder, and crime (broken window theory). Basis for graffiti response initiatives (idea that within 24-48 hours graffiti is removed because once it’s up it gets worse and worse)
• Given the above, police should focus their attention on disorder and quality of life crimes. Going to shift a bit away from jay-walking and look at social order crimes.

Question 9

COP Core features

Answer 9

1. Police-community partnership: need to forge a formal partnership between the police and the community. Suggested that the success of this feature is based on the success of (1) consultation and (2) mobilisation. Difficulty revolves around defining “police” (i.e. personal change constantly) “community”
2. Organisation change: suggest that there is a need for a change to both organisational structure and culture.
   Structural changes include
   a. Decentralisation of the department with fewer levels of management and less specialisation. Have to be decentralised do that they can be in the community.
   b. Greater discretion from patrol officers.
   c. Less frequent re-assignment of officers to allow for stable relationships with the community. However, for most officers, the road ahead involves moving around to different areas to get promotions.
   Cultural change includes:
   a. Change from a reactive to a proactive
   b. Get rid of “us” vs. “them” mentality
3. Engage in problem-solving
4. Programmatic elements: common elements across initiatives include:
   a. Philosophical dimension: central ideas behind the philosophy. Everyone has to get behind the philosophy. Some police can’t be doing zero tolerance
   b. Strategic dimension: operational concepts that translate philosophy into action.
   c. Tactical dimension: programs, practices and behaviours
   d. Organisation dimensions: changes in administration, management and supervisions to support community policing

Question 10

CompStat

Answer 10

Based on:

• Belief that police have the ability to BOTH prevent and reduce crime
• The use of computer-generated stats to analyse crime problems and develop appropriate responses (heavy emphasis on data mining).
• The understanding that timely analysis of data is central to the success of the initiative
• A scientific approach

CompStat Stages:

1. Identification of Specific Objective (e,g, reducing the number of guns on the street)
2. Timely and Accurate Intelligence (e.g. GIS, hot spots analysis, crime patterns)
3. Effective Strategies and Tactics – developed across various units and patrol-based
4. Rapid deployment of Personnel and resources
5. Continuous follow-up and assessment

Question 11

Elements of Occupational Assessments

Answer 11

1. Major differentiation from other assessments is that you are working with normative populations
2. Goal is to empirically identify some specific aspect of the individual that is related to the specific occupation
3. Assessments are heavily reliant on theories of personality (especially trait theory) and profiling

Question 12

Occupational assessmemt catergories/steps:

Answer 12

Step 1: Interest: goal is to identify potential occupational areas that “match” the personality of the individual
- Requires knowledge of:
o The individual (trait theory)
o The occupation (what traits are needed in the person applying)
Step 2: Screening (e.g. cognitive ability): goal is to identify individuals who currently have the requisite skills/abilities to successfully engage in the occupation. Heavily orientated toward evaluation of individuals cognitive abilities. Example of this is VCE.
- Challenges:
o Reliability/validity of tools
o Cost
Step 3: Atptitude Goal is to identify individuals who have the potential to be effective in the occupation based on knowledge regarding the “job” requirements
Often based on non-research based conceptualizations about job skills and requirements
Challenges:
accurate identification of occupational skills/needs.

Step 4: Performance
Goal is to assess an individual in terms of their effectiveness in their role
Results are often used as a basis for promotions, raises, assignment to additional training, etc.
Challenges:
reliability/validity of tools
used as a evidence for a decision rather than evidence to make the decision