Encouraging public cooperation and support for police

This paper explores how to increase public cooperation and support for police. To date, only a few studies have attempted to explore the role that procedural justice plays in shaping the public's willingness to assist police in crime control. The present study explores this much neglected field of research using both crosssectional survey data and panel data. The study finds that views about police legitimacy do influence public cooperation with the police, and that those who view the police as more legitimate are more likely to assist police to control crime. The key antecedent of legitimacy is procedural justice; those who are more likely to believe police use procedural justice in their dealings with the public are more likely to perceive police as legitimate.

The relationship between job status, interviewing experience, gender, and police officers' adherence to open-ended questions

Purpose : The current study examined whether several factors related to the job and demographic profile of police officers are associated with adherence to best-practice guidelines when interviewing children.

Method : One hundred and seventy-eight police officers completed a standardized (simulated) interview regarding an allegation of abuse by a 5-year-old child. Immediately prior to this interview, details were obtained from the officers' regarding their job status, gender, interview experience, the timing and nature of prior training/supervision, and experience outside the policing profession with young children.

Results : The results showed that timing of training was the only factor that related to interview performance. The proportion of open-ended questions among participants who completed their interviewer training course less than 1 month prior to the simulated interview was better than those who completed the training earlier. Interestingly, the performance of the latter group was identical to that of a group of participants who had not yet received any formal interview training. The implications of the findings are discussed, along with directions for future research.

Improving the competency of police officers in conducting investigative interviews with children

Despite the provision of 'best-practice' guidelines regarding conducting interviews with children, research indicates that most investigative interviews do not adhere to these guidelines. To date, there has been little discussion in the literature of the conditions that are needed to promote and sustain expertise in forensic interviewing. The current paper addresses this limitation by describing the main factors preventing the adoption of 'best-practice' interview guidelines. A description of these barriers (and the literature that supports them) forms the basis for the review component of this paper as well as the subsequent recommendations for change.

An examination of police officers' notes of interviews with alleged child abuse victims

This study provided a critical examination of handwritten records (notes) of interviews contained in a sample of 89 police case files about alleged child abuse. Some of the notes examined related to initial disclosure (complaint) interviews which were not electronically recorded and were meant to be recorded verbatim. Notes of electronically recorded interviews, which merely constituted a convenient summary of the case details, were also examined. Collectively, the analyses focused on the accessibility, completeness and accuracy of the notes, and the degree to which the interviewers' questions and witnesses' answers were differentiated. In relation to the disclosure interviews, a substantial proportion of these were not accessible. Of those where the notes were obtained, the detail recorded was not a complete record of conversation, and there was often poor delineation of questions and responses. Analysis of the electronically recorded interviews showed that these were not an entirely accurate summary of event details even though the note takers' sole task was to document the interview. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Police stress : the role of psychological contract and perceptions of fairness

Purpose – The overall purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which breaches in psychological contracts and perceptions of organizational fairness account for variations in job stress experienced by operational police officers (as measured by psychological distress and employee performance), after controlling for the variance associated with more established job stressors (i.e. job demands, job control and social support).

Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on data collected through a self-report survey involving operational members of a large Australian police force (n=582).

Findings – Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicate that vast majority of explained variance in psychological distress and extra-role performance is attributed to the additive effects of demand, control, and support. Furthermore, only one of the social exchange dimensions (interpersonal fairness) is predictive of either target variable.

Research limitations/implications – The limitations that need to be taken into account are the cross-sectional nature of the study design and the focus on a single police service.

Practical implications – Despite the generally weak support for the social exchange variables, there are signs that dimensions of justice (particularly interpersonal justice) should be included in future police-stress investigations. The results also suggest that job characteristics such as job demand, job control and social support should be taken into account when developing strategies to prevent and/or reduce chronic job stress in policing services.

Originality/value – This is one of the first studies to examine the relationships between psychological contract breach, perceptions of fairness and police stress.

Integrity of the circadian time-keeping system in chronic fatigue syndrome

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating condition in which severe, ongoing fatigue is the most prominent of a complex of somatic, psychological and neuropsychological symptoms. The aetiology of CFS remains uncertain and, to date, efforts to distinguish a clear pathophysiological profile for the disorder have been unsuccessful. Current evidence suggests that, rather than being a discrete disease entity with a single cause, CFS is a clinical condition resulting from the interaction of a number of pathophysiological factors, including acute infections, stress and psychiatric disorder. Recently, there has been some interest in the proposition that disordered circadian time-keeping may contribute to the development and/or course of the illness. The rationale for the investigation of circadian factors in CFS is based on the fact that disorders known to be associated with circadian dysregulation, such as jet lag and shiftwork related syndromes have a high degree of symptomatological overlap with CFS. Also, the presence of circadian disturbance could account, in part, for other phenomenological aspects of CFS, including the high rates of comorbid affective disturbance, and the reports of low-level immune dyregulation among sufferers. While several recent studies have produced some evidence of chronobiological dysregulation in CFS patients, much work remains before conclusions can be drawn about the presence, nature and clinical significance of circadian disturbance in CFS. This thesis describes a series of studies that were designed to systematically investigate: 1. whether CFS is associated with a state of circadian dysregulation, and 2. whether circadian dysregulation contributes significantly to the symptomatology of CFS. The first of the 5 studies reported here compared the circadian patterns of sleep-activity of CFS sufferers with those of healthy controls. Results indicated that CFS patients' sleep-activity cycles were significantly phase delayed compared to controls, and that some aspects of their circadian profiles of sleep-activity were related to some measures of sleep-disturbance and well-being. Studies 2 and 3 investigated the relationship between rhythms of sleep-wake and core temperature in CFS patients and healthy controls. The major finding from these studies was that sleep-wake and core temperature rhythms appear to be less effectively synchronised. Further evidence was collected that suggested that there was a relationship between circadian parameters and symptom measures in the CFS group. While this indicated that circadian dysregulation is linked in some way to the symptoms of CFS, assessment of the actual clinical significance of circadian disturbances required the use of a prospective methodology. The final two studies, therefore, report on a placebo-controlled trial of clinical interventions that were designed to restore circadian integrity to CFS patients, in order to see whether this would lead to a reduction in symptom number or severity. Results indicated that, although patients experienced improvements across a range of measures of symptoms and functional capacity, these were small in magnitude, of unlikely clinical significance, and no greater, in general, to improvements reported by patients who underwent placebo treatment. These results, along with those of the earlier studies, are discussed with respect to their implications regarding the presence and significance of circadian dysregulation. It is concluded that, while they provide evidence that CFS is associated with a degree of both internal and external circadian desynchrony, these findings suggest that circadian dysregulation is likely to be only a peripheral, contributor to the processes that generate and maintain the symptom complex. These findings are discussed with respect to how they contribute to our overall understanding of this multi-dimensional condition, and the implications they have for the continuing effort to investigate the causes and treatment of CFS.

State police in a state of change : remaking the entrepreneurial officer

Questions concerning how to govern police practice have never been more pressing or more fluid. This study locates contemporary developments in police accountability techniques within a broader analysis of the historical circumstances shaping the changing techniques for governing police. The recent pluralisation of police accountability pr.ocesses and structures is examined through the application of governmentality studies. Drawing on a comparative analysis of two Australian States the book provides a detailed account of the development of governmental techniques for 'making up' the entrepreneurial officer. While such a governmental project is not implemented unproblematically the book concludes that the attempt to shape the development of the entrepreneurial officer through the managerialisation of governing presents distinct possibilities for a new 'politics of policing' that fosters deliberative and reflective police practice.

Police officers' questioning of children about repeated abuse

This thesis examined the perceptions of police and legal professionals regarding how police officers should and do interview children about repeated abuse. It also examined the actual performance of police interviewers in mock and field interviews to understand the reason for interviewer's difficulties and how interview strategy can be improved. The portfolio examines and discusses the complexities associated with assessing the risk of sexual recidivism among different sex offender populations - adult sex offenders, sex offenders with an intellectual disability, adolescent sex offenders and indigenous sex offenders. Four case studies are presented.

Police officers' note-taking of interviews with alleged child abuse victims

The field and experimental studies for this thesis revealed that: the quality of documentation of 'disclosure' (initial) interviews with child abuse witnesses was poor; under optimal note-taking conditions, verbatim records of interview were still not provided, and considerable variability was observed in the quality of notes and strategies employed to document content and structure. The portfolio presents four case studies to illustrate similarities and/or differences between offence behaviour in child sex offenders with impairment, and the offence behaviours that characterise Canter et al.'s intimate, criminal-opportunistic and aggressive type offenders.

Plagiarism, the internet and student learning : improving academic integrity

Written for higher education educators, managers and policy-makers, 'Plagiarism, the Internet and Student Learning' combines theoretical understandings with a practical model of plagiarism and explains why and how plagiarism developed.

Australian police responses to transnational crime and terrorism

This chapter outlines the Australian federal policing and allied agency responses to international drug trafficking activity and terrorism. The chapter is situated alongside a broader analysis of the structure of each key agency and the various interagency enforcement mechanisms established domestically and internationally to improve enforcement performance.

An analysis of police officers decisions about whether to refer cases of child abuse for prosecution

In many jurisdictions, police officers are responsible for deciding whether cases of child abuse are referred for potential prosecution. Such discretion justifies the need to scrutinise these professionals' decisions to determine if they are consistent with the scientific eyewitness memory literature. Prior research has shown that interviewer questioning is one of the most critical factors impacting the reliability of child witness statements. Hence, we asked: 'To what degree do officers' consider the quality of interviewer questions when making case authorisation decisions?'. In order to answer this question, we conducted a thematic analysis to identify issues referred to in a sample of documented police correspondence (n=33) about potential prosecution of child abuse cases. Two key themes emerged: the existence of corroborative evidence and whether the suspect denied the allegations. Questioning technique, however, was not considered. All but one decision that referred to interview process focused on the presentation of the witness, even though the witness interviews (as a whole) did not adhere to recommended best-practice guidelines. The implications of these findings are discussed.