Police psychology

Question 1

Definition of police psychology

Answer 1

research and application of psychology to the law and public safety

Question 2

Define police culture

Answer 2

a. Relates to how the police officers interact with each other and the community at large
b. Large emphasis placed on support and trust between police officers

Question 3

What was an important paper published on police culture?

Answer 3

Paoline 2003

Question 4

What are the four general roles of a police psychologist

Answer 4

i. Assessment: Job analysis, fitness for duty, evaluation for specialty police forces
ii. Intervention: Well-being of officers, therapy, substance abuse treatment
iii. Operational: Helping police as they do their work: negotiation training, threat assessments
iv. Consulting and research: may be the role of a separate psychologist

Question 5

Define police selection

Answer 5

Set of procedures used by the police to screen out undesirable recruits and screen in desirables

Question 6

Define screen out

Answer 6

Rejection of police candidates exhibiting psychopathology or instability, or lack of aptitude

Question 7

Define screen in

Answer 7

Inclusion of candidates that will be potentially more effective than others

Question 8

What is involved in the job analysis stage of police recruitment selection?

Answer 8

1. Identifying Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities required for the job (KSAs)
2. b. Trying to find the right KSAs (since they often change every decade to 15 years)

Question 9

How are KSAs determined?

Answer 9

i. Finding what the public wants in their police officers
ii. Look at the essential skills in the job setting
iii. Focus group: figure out needed skills for a police officer – with a group of police officers

Question 10

What is one problem with KSAs?

Answer 10

1. Characteristics often require change with rank increase

2. Therefore, new KSAs must be found for the new position

Question 11

What are the three levels of the Contribution and Validation stage

Answer 11

1. Selection interview: Main goal is to interview candidates for KSAs
2. Psychological testing: IQ and personality tests
3. Assessment centers: Fictitious situations where reactions and strategies are assessed.

Question 12

Define police discretion

Answer 12

When police should choose to overlook the law, or hold to it, based on the circumstances

Question 13

Why is discretion necessary

Answer 13

1. It is impossible to create laws that encompass all situations a police officer may encounter
2. Some laws are vague, so subject to interpretation
3. Some offences are really minor in nature

Question 14

What are four important KSAs of discretion

Answer 14

a. Ability to adapt
b. Common sense
c. Efficient decision
d. Problem-solving skills

Question 15

What are factors that influence police discretion?

Answer 15

1. Seriousness of crime
2. strength of evidence
3. Victim asks for arrest
4. The victim and offender are strangers
5. Suspect is disrespectful to the officer

Question 16

What are three cases in which police discretion is often used?

Answer 16

1. Youth crime
2. Offenders with mental illness
3. Domestic violence

Question 17

What is resolution conference (with the four steps)?

Answer 17

1. Family, victim, police and offender come together to make a resolution or plan, involving four steps:
   a. Compensation of victim
   b. Penalize the youth
   c. Provide support to youth’s family
   d. Monitoring arrangement that ensures youth complies with the program

Question 18

How often is police violence used?

Answer 18

Across all incidents, it is very rare

Question 19

The Police Discretion wheel

Answer 19

Understand how it works!

Question 20

What are four sources of police stress?

Answer 20

1. Organizational stressors: lack of career development
2. Occupational stress: always around the worst of humanity
3. Criminal justice stress: ineffectively of correction system
4. Public stressors
   How the media portrays police

Question 21

Consequences of police stress

Answer 21

1. Decrease in job performance
2. Health problems
3. Psychological health
   - high rates of suicide, PTSD, and depression

Question 22

What are the two stages of the police selection process

Answer 22

1. Job analysis stage

2. Construction and validation stage