Improving Frontline Responses to Domestic Violence in Europe

The monograph on improving the response of first responders to domestic violence in Europe aims to identify gaps in the cooperation of first-line responders and deliver recommendations, toolkits andcollaborative training for European police organizations and medical and social work professionals. The goal is to improve integrate institutional response to domestic violence. Shared training and adequaterisk assessment tools will create a positive feedback loop, increasing reporting rates of domestic violence to police, the medical profession, and community and social work practitioners.

Is It Because You Don’t Want to? A Content Analysis of Police Executive Leaders’ Perceptions of Policewomen’s Careers in Europe

The impediments and barriers that women face in entering and developing a police career have received relatively little attention from researchers. As of today in Europe, despite the slow progress, the 25% barrier to female representation has already been overcome in several countries. However, many areas remain closed to women within police organizations. In this context, research was conducted based on a content analysis of the perceptions of 56 police officers, 28 men and 28 women with considerable police experience, occupying executive leadership positions from a total of 26 European countries. Data was collected through a questionnaire composed of 23 open questions. The results show a considerable gap between the perceptions of male and female police executive leaders with regard to access, career development and workplace conditions faced by policepersons. According to the results, the mirage of equality, dominant in the view of male police officers, is a major barrier to achieving real equality, both horizontally and vertically. What implications these results have on the strategies that police organizations should follow to achieve the challenge of inclusion are discussed, and new ways of analysis are proposed.

Lawfare and Security Labor: Subjectification and Subjugation of Police Workers in India

What labor rights do police workers have? How are they legally delimited? This article addresses these questions through a case study of government responses to attempts by police constables in post/colonial South Asia to express job-related grievances and establish employee unions. Drawing on ethnographic observations, interviews, and archival documents collected in India over fifteen years, the analysis demonstrates that, for more than a century, class warfare within police organizations has manifested in counter-insurgency “lawfare” between senior officials and subordinate personnel regarding whether and how the latter may collectively organize to transform their living and working conditions. It further shows how in this context law as a social field has worked to subjectify rank-and-file police as an ironically exploitable and expendable class of laborers who are always already suspect of rebelling against the state that they have sworn to serve. Through revelations of a long history of structural servitude compelling subaltern police in South Asia to do questionably legal types of labor, this study raises challenging questions about how police work has been conceived and practiced globally as “security labor” and how, moving forward, we must work to reimagine what police work is, what it can be, and what it ought to be.

Organizational levers supporting police officers’ psychological health in the workplace after exposure to a potentially psychologically traumatic event

One in two police officers report having experienced a potentially psychologically traumatic event (PPTE) in the course of their career that has had an impact on their professional or personal life. In addition, daily exposure to PPTEs results in major adverse effects that affect all aspects of health: psychological, emotional, and physical. However, it is not necessarily PPTEs as such that cause psychological distress at work; rather, the determining factor seems to be the organization’s response to police officers’ exposure to PPTEs. The purpose of this study is therefore to identify the organizational factors that explain psychological health at work for police officers who have experienced a PPTE in the line of duty. The results show that the quality of relationships with the superior and colleagues, the availability of support such as advice, job demand, and job decision latitude are factors that partially explain the psychological distress that police officers experience at work after a PPTE [R2 = .38, p<.05; F(1,451) = 55.99, p<.001]. Conversely, quality relationships with co-workers, job demand, and job decision latitude partially account for the workplace psychological well-being experienced by officers after a PPTE [R2=.42, p<.05; F(1,457) = 109.55, p<.001]. This study highlights the importance for police organizations to promote good relationships between police officers and, above all, to encourage managers to invest in their relational skills and counseling-type social support. The study limitations and new avenues for research are also discussed.

Policing in the COVID-19 pandemic: are rural police organizations immune?

PurposeThis study examined how rural police agencies have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from various sources, this study first analyzed what factors influenced agency preparedness to respond to pandemics. Second, it examined how the pandemic influenced specific organizational practices.FindingsFindings revealed that as coronavirus infections increased in counties, supervisors were more likely be tasked with inspecting personal protective equipment (PPE), agencies were more likely to offer pandemic related training, health tracking of officers was more likely to occur and agencies were more likely to encounter a shortage of officers. In addition, as rurality increased, agencies were more likely to offer training but less likely to experience officers contracting COVID-19 and an officer shortage. Lastly, as the rurality of the county in which the agency resides increased, the ability to supply PPE decreased.Practical implicationsBased on these findings, it is imperative that rural police agencies give attention to risk management and the formulation of policy to prepare for public health emergencies.Originality/valueWhile knowledge about how large police agencies in the United States have responded during the coronavirus pandemic is building, little is known about rural policing during pandemics.

Advocating for the use of Restorative Justice Practices: Examining the Overlap Between Restorative Justice and Behavior Analysis

Broadly defined, Restorative Justice (RJ) is a set of procedures based in Indigenous peacemaking practices that reduces recidivism and guides the effective reparation of harm. RJ practices provide harm-affected parties an opportunity for engagement in the resolution process, which theoretically enhances community well-being. RJ practices overlap significantly with behavior-analytic principles. Implementing RJ practices from a context-focused, appetitive-based approach that focuses on classes of behaviors may address harmful behaviors within police organizations. RJ practices may also facilitate changes in contexts that support behaviors valued by the community. The current review discusses criminal and Restorative Justice, RJ processes and practices, the effectiveness of RJ in various contexts, how RJ overlaps with behavior-analytic principles and existing behavior science models more generally, research suggestions, and recommendations for behavior analysts implementing RJ within police organizations and communities to address officer misconduct.

A Tale of Force: Examining Policy Proposals to Address Police Violence

We develop an explicitly organizational and relational approach to examine the problem of police violence, focusing empirically on prominent policy recommendations to increase officer demographic diversity, raise educational requirements for new officers, and implement community policing strategies. We first review prior research on these proposals, which is surprisingly thin and non-supportive of the proposals. To examine the baseline plausibility of these recommendations, we estimate cross-sectional negative binomial models, regressing counts of police department use of force on indicators of community policing, officer education, and officer racial and gender diversity. We find that police organizations with more college-educated officers are less violent toward citizens, but that the race and sex composition of law enforcement organizations are not associated with lower levels of police violence. After unpacking the community police philosophy into component practices, we find that practices that encourage proactive policing are associated with higher levels of police violence, while those that encourage the formation of relationships with citizens may reduce police violence. In conclusion, we advocate for better data collection on police violence, increased theorizing of police violence as an organizational accomplishment, and future policy interventions that approach police forces as potentially violent and racialized organizations.