Week 1 Flashcards
What is police psychology? (2 definitions and how they differ/what’s wrong with them)
The delivery of psychological services to and on behalf of police agencies, their executives and their employees
This is the most commonly accepted one because it was used to make it its own psychological field but is very narrow and only part of what the field does as a whole
Involves the application of psychology to policing, but also research done with or on behalf of police to inform applied practice
This definition is broader but better as it is more encompassing of the practice of police psych
What is the status of the field of police psych? (5)
Long history of publication dating back to the late 1800s
Field has continued to grow and roles have expanded
Professional associations have emerged which is a sign that enough specific interest is there to warrant its own discipline
Increasing amount of research resulting in police psych books and journals (about 25 now)
Recently recognized by the APA as a specialty discipline
What do police psychologists do? (What are their 4 main domains of tasks?) AIOC
Assessment (job analysis, pre-employment evaluations, fitness for duty evaluations, evaluations for high risk assignments, etc.)
Intervention (employee assistance counseling, therapy, critical incident intervention/therapy, counseling for unique stressors like undercover work, etc.)
Operational (psychological intelligence, criminal profiling, psychological autopsies, crisis negotiation, counterterrorism, etc.)
Consulting (developing performance appraisal systems, organizational development, executive consultation, mediation, consulting-related research, etc.)
What is the status of police psychologists in Canada? (3)
A study looking at 30 psychologists found most were satisfied with their jobs
Mostly clinicians and academics with advanced degrees
Wide range of jobs across the 4 domains
What challenges face police psychologists in Canada? (5)
Lack of funding from police agencies
Difficult security clearance procedures
Limited officer cooperation with research
Miscommunication between psychologists and officers (how we see the word ‘evidence’ is different than how police see ‘evidence’)
Lack of knowledge about psychology among officers
What needs to change in police psych in Canada? (6)
More educational programs specific to police psych in schools
More psychology training and programming for officers
Better communication between academics and officers
More hiring of in-house psychologists
Police psychologists should take more forensic psych and assessment training
Trainees need to complete practices and internships with police agencies
What are some of the ethical issues involved in police psych? (5) CBCMR
Confidentiality
Breaking confidentiality
Competence
Multiple roles
Respecting basic rights
What is the ethical issue of confidentiality? (3)
Must respect the confidentiality of information obtained during work
Individuals must have informed consent of the limits of confidentiality
The problem is that you have a responsibility to the client but in police psych, you are often payed by the courts to assess an officer, which blurs the lines of who the client is and what responsibility you have to who
What is the ethical issue of breaking confidentiality? (2)
Must determine who the client is and establish clear roles and responsibilities
Must make exceptions to confidentiality when required (duty to inform/warn someone of harm)
What is the ethical issue of competence? (3)
Must provide services and use techniques in which you are qualified by training and experience
Not practicing what is outside of your field/abilities/training
Must stay current with respect to scientific and professional information in the field
What is the ethical issue of multiple roles? (2)
Occurs when a psychologist has more than one relationship with a client or someone close to the client
Should discuss this with them to ensure openness and clarity and determine the best path forward
What is the ethical issue of respecting basic rights? (2)
Must respect the basic rights of individual who may be impacted by recommendations or services provided
Avoid involvement in police actions that appear to be unlawful or unethical (interrogation tactics)
What is evidence based policing (EBP)?
Based on the idea that police practices should be based on scientific evidence about what works best
What are the goals of EBP? (3)
To develop answers (based on rigorous research), to the question “what works in policing?” in terms of training programs, crime reduction methods, interrogation methods, education pathways, preventing policing issues like racial profiling, etc.
For the purpose of developing sound policing strategies, policies and programs
To move away from a policing model where decisions are made based on un-tested assumptions (anecdote, experience, gut instinct)
What are the most commonly used methods in EBP to develop evidence? (6) SSQOSM
Spatial-temporal crime mapping
Surveys
Qualitative interviews
Observational field research
Systematic literature reviews
Mixed methods
What are RCTs? (3)
Randomized control trials
Huge emphasis on the use of quantitatively-based RCTs in EBP (considered to be the gold standard by some even if it’s not the best)
You randomly assign patients to a treatment group or a control group, where the treatment group is given the training/program/research focus and the control isn’t, then comparing the results in a follow-up of both to determine effectiveness
What is the triple T EBP strategy? How do police do with each step?
Targeting (identifying a high-priority policing problem)
Testing (police strategies to fix the problem should be tested through scientific research to make sure they work)
Tracking (solutions should be tracked over time to ensure they continue to work and make changes if needed)
Police are good at targeting, good at implementing strategies but less good at testing them, and suck at tracking
What are the 3 key elements of EBP?
Research must be usable (relevant and accessible to the police community, not just psych and academics)
Involve police in the research process (as co-creators, co-investigators, consultants, etc.; makes it more effective and valuable as they have lived experience and knowledge)
Identify what works (build an evidence based by conduction and reviewing research)
What prevents EBP? (3)
Information about effectiveness is not available, or it is available but irrelevant
Information is available but knowledge translation/transfer hasn’t occurred (academia and police agencies as silos that don’t share or collaborate)
Organizational cultures and systems reinforce traditional ways of doing things (reticent to change from how they’ve always done it and get defensive)
What are the two tools that have been developed to help police determine what works according to the research the research literature?
EBP Matrix
The Crime Reduction Toolkit
What is the EBP Matrix? (2) What are the categorizations? (4 TPSE) What does it mainly find?
A collection of moderate to rigorous studies concerning crime reduction mainly used to identify realms/clusters of effectiveness to find what EBP crime reduction strategies are working best
Updated regularly
Categorized by:
Type (nature of the target from individuals to nations)
Proactivity (proactive vs reactive)
Specificity (how general or focused the strategy is)
Also looks at effectiveness, commonalities between studies
Mainly finds that proactive, place-based, focused strategies are often effective
What is the Crime Reduction Toolkit? (2) What are the components? (5) EMMIE
Toolkit based on a framework known as EMMIE
Focuses on specific criteria when looking at a study to try and do what the matrix does and determine what works and what doesn’t for preventing crime
Includes the following components:
Effect (impact of strategy on crime)
Mechanism (how it works and what we know about it)
Moderators (circumstances where it works best)
Implementation (how to implement it)
Economic assessment (how much it costs)
