Mental health stigma and help-seeking intentions in police employees

Mental health problems among police employees are exacerbated by negative attitudes and beliefs around mental health help-seeking perpetuated by police culture. We collected anonymous survey data from 259 civilian and commissioned police employees to test hypothesized relationships among help-seeking stigma, help-seeking attitudes, and intended help-seeking behavior. Results demonstrated that mental help-seeking stigma was negatively associated with help-seeking attitudes, and in turn with reduced mental health help-seeking intentions. Structural equation modeling provided support for a model linking help-seeking stigma, help-seeking attitudes, and intentions to seek help. This path model was moderated by psychological distress and previous participation in mindfulness training, which had opposing effects on help-seeking stigma and (indirectly) on intended help-seeking. These results support the hypothesis that stigma around mental health help-seeking contributes to reduced help-seeking intentions, and provide insight into policies, practices, and interventions that police agencies may enact to combat stigma and positively influence mental health help-seeking.

Re-examining the Use of Force Continuum: Why Resistance is Not the Only Driver of Use of Force Decisions

Policing research and use of force policies have been guided by the continuum model for the past several decades. The continuum specifies a relationship between the amount of resistance a suspect presents and the amount of force that an officer should use to respond to or overcome a given level of resistance. In this paper, we show that resistance alone is an insufficient indicator of the necessity and level of force to be used both conceptually and empirically. We argue for the inclusion of considerations of perceived threat in the analysis of use of force incidents—both in policy and in research. Our analysis also reiterates the importance of police culture in understanding use of force decisions.

Inter-Agency Cooperation and Coordination

In the past, the feminist movement exposed a sexist police culture as the main cause for police apathy in the face of domestic violence. This critique led to an ongoing transformation of police organisations. This transformation is composed of two main processes. The first process is a movement to constrain police activity, force police officers to take domestic violence seriously by enacting laws and rules that aim to reduce police officers' discretion. The second process also aims at transforming police activity, not by constraining it, but by improving the skills of police officers and making them work in partnerships with other stakeholders from medical or social service professions in the best interest of the victim. These partnerships may be within the police organisations or between the police and other stakeholders — typically social workers, magistrates, social housing representatives, NGOs, city administrators, etc. This chapter focuses on this second transformation process and aims at drawing comparative lessons from case studies in eight countries to document the characteristics of a "good partnership" against domestic violence.

Negotiating Gender and Police Culture: Exploring the Barriers to Retention and Progression of Female Police Officers in New Zealand

<p>Women officers represent a minority within the New Zealand Police (Police) particularly within the senior ranks. In recent years, Police have made concerted efforts to increase women’s representation as well as improve the working environment. However, recent reviews of the 2007 Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct have reported that women continue to face barriers to full integration and furthermore, that the changes to the police culture have reached a plateau. New Zealand and international research have established that police culture continues to pose a barrier to women’s full acceptance within policing. This culture is characterised by predominantly white, heterosexual males, who form what has been described as a “cult of masculinity”. Therefore, women find they must adopt the culture in order to “fit in” and be accepted as “one of the boys”. Adopting a qualitative framework, this research involved semi-structured face-to-face interviews with sworn female police officers. Exploring female police officers’ experiences identified five pertinent barriers to women’s retention and progression. These were the emphasis on physical skills and excitement, the police camaraderie and the cult of masculinity, sexual harassment within the workplace, women’s minority status, and balancing motherhood with policing. It was found that the persistence of these barriers came back to core features of police culture. Due to the strong allegiance to the positive aspects of the police culture, such as the camaraderie, negative features such as sexual banter and harassment were subsumed within the wider culture. Negative features were tolerated and accepted as part and parcel of working in the Police. Women’s narratives demonstrated that they adhered to core police culture features and thus contributed to the sustenance of the culture. Furthermore, how women articulated their experiences and perceptions of barriers was complex and nuanced. Many held the belief that there were no longer any barriers for women in the Police, yet such positive views were in contradiction with their own experiences. The tension between “perceptions” and “reality” creates a situation where the Police currently sit at a crossroads between the “old” culture and the new rhetoric of “change”.</p>

Negotiating Gender and Police Culture: Exploring the Barriers to Retention and Progression of Female Police Officers in New Zealand

<p>Women officers represent a minority within the New Zealand Police (Police) particularly within the senior ranks. In recent years, Police have made concerted efforts to increase women’s representation as well as improve the working environment. However, recent reviews of the 2007 Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct have reported that women continue to face barriers to full integration and furthermore, that the changes to the police culture have reached a plateau. New Zealand and international research have established that police culture continues to pose a barrier to women’s full acceptance within policing. This culture is characterised by predominantly white, heterosexual males, who form what has been described as a “cult of masculinity”. Therefore, women find they must adopt the culture in order to “fit in” and be accepted as “one of the boys”. Adopting a qualitative framework, this research involved semi-structured face-to-face interviews with sworn female police officers. Exploring female police officers’ experiences identified five pertinent barriers to women’s retention and progression. These were the emphasis on physical skills and excitement, the police camaraderie and the cult of masculinity, sexual harassment within the workplace, women’s minority status, and balancing motherhood with policing. It was found that the persistence of these barriers came back to core features of police culture. Due to the strong allegiance to the positive aspects of the police culture, such as the camaraderie, negative features such as sexual banter and harassment were subsumed within the wider culture. Negative features were tolerated and accepted as part and parcel of working in the Police. Women’s narratives demonstrated that they adhered to core police culture features and thus contributed to the sustenance of the culture. Furthermore, how women articulated their experiences and perceptions of barriers was complex and nuanced. Many held the belief that there were no longer any barriers for women in the Police, yet such positive views were in contradiction with their own experiences. The tension between “perceptions” and “reality” creates a situation where the Police currently sit at a crossroads between the “old” culture and the new rhetoric of “change”.</p>

Reimagining Policing in America

Police killings have increased over 100% in the past two decades. Black people, along with American Indians and Latinx communities (and some Asian and Pacific Islander communities), are more likely to have police force used on them relative to whites. This article aims to provide policy recommendations that inform reforms toward police accountability, improved training, and a police culture that protects citizens. We focus on short-, medium-, and long-term solutions for reimagining law enforcement to reduce officer-involved shootings, racial disparities in use of force, mental health issues among officers, and problematic officers who rotten the tree of law enforcement. We focus acutely on the need to abolish qualified immunity with the longterm change of transforming police culture itself to better protect civilians and police who approach their jobs with ethical respect.

Hispanic and Latinx Police Officers’ Perceptions of the Working Environment

The percentage of police officers identifying as Hispanic or Latinx is steadily rising nationwide, yet relatively little research has examined this group’s occupational attitudes. Police culture research has identified officers’ perceptions of danger and cynicism toward the public as core concepts. No research to date has examined whether or how Hispanic and Latinx officers might differ from their White colleagues on these occupational attitudes. The present study uses data from a survey of police officers in a large, municipal department. Hispanic and Latinx officers are compared to White peers on perceived danger and cynicism. Results show that Hispanic and Latinx officers feel higher levels of danger but are less cynical. Implications for research and police policy are discussed.

Measures against prejudice at the Hungarian Police – theoretical research on police culture and cop culture

The author would like to present the measures taken by the Hungarian Police against prejudice in the context of this article. For the analysis, she has chosen the police and cop culture approach. Her aim is to present the organisational framework and the human being itself separately. In the author’s opinion, training and education fall between the two cultures. The author proposes further research and education on cop culture, and suggests the introduction of intercultural education to prevent prejudicial behaviour and improve cooperation. The author considers that, by teaching both subjects, police officers will have a better understanding of both prejudices and the dangers of the police profession.