The following are excerpts from recent research related to justice and law enforcement and reflect the views and opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the organizations for which they work.
Compiled by Amelia Thatcher
The X-Roads Crime Prevention Program (X-Roads)
Introduction
The X-Roads Crime Prevention Project (X-Roads) provided prevention and intervention activities for Aboriginal children and youth aged six to 18 years and at risk of becoming involved in gang activity in The Pas, Manitoba.
X-Roads was funded by Public Safety Canada between September 2009 and August 2012, and was implemented by The Pas Family Resource Centre with support from community partners.
Goal and objectives
The objectives of the project were to:
- prevent at-risk children and youth from becoming involved with gangs;
- reduce risk-taking behaviours amongst participating children and youth; and
- create a sustainable network to share resources and knowledge and address gang prevention and intervention.
Participants
This project reached more than 500 children and youth but focused its core activities on 56 of those at the highest risk. The participants were identified through referrals, outreach activities, public relations activities, incentives to involve the youth, and contact with parents.
It was anticipated that youth aged 13 to 18 would be the highest risk, but, in fact, the highest number of participants identified by referrals were between six and 11 years of age.
Key elements of the program
A detailed assessment of each person in the project was undertaken and individual case management plans were developed. These plans integrated activities and interventions to reduce risk and build on protective factors specific to each participant's situation.
Case management drew on resources from law enforcement/juvenile justice, schools, families and the X-Roads project staff. A case management team worked to ensure coordination, integration and access to services.
Monthly plan reviews and re-assessments were conducted and quarterly case management meetings were held with providers connected to the participant.
The activities for participants focused on five main elements: sports and fitness, the arts, character and leadership development, health and life skills, and education.
Intervention activities for youth-in-need included, but were not limited to, substance abuse treatment, life-skills training and educational support.
All activities were informed by aboriginal culture.
Findings
The majority of the participants matched those the community was most concerned about and the project sought to reach. The high levels of risk and needs of the children and youth required more intensive interventions than anticipated. As a result, the number of participants was lower than planned.
The project fostered several protective factors, including:
- increased involvement in pro-social activities and healthy lifestyles;
- increased opportunities for positive engagement with peers and the community;
- increased perception of social support from adults and peers;
- increased healthy lifestyle choices; and
- increased social competencies and problem-solving skills.
Reports of increased respect and co-operation, improved focus in class, higher academic productivity, and reductions in risk-taking behaviour were common.
To access the full report, please visit www.publicsafety.gc.ca.
Occupational stress, anxiety and coping strategies in police officers
D. Acquadro Maran, A. Varetto, M. Zedda, and V. Ieraci
Background
Studies on occupational stress have shown that police officers are exposed to stressful events more often than other workers and this can result in impaired psychosocial well-being and physical health. ¸
The aim of this research was to investigate the stressors perceived by a sample of police officers working in a large city in northern Italy and to consider the effects of gender, organizational role and sector of operation on the perception of stress. The study also sought to measure the level of stress they experienced, the consequences of anxiety and the coping strategies they adopted.
Methods
We used the Police Stress Questionnaire and the Distress Thermometer to measure occupational stress, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety and the Brief COPE questionnaire to measure coping strategies. The questionnaires were self-administered.
Results
The questionnaire was completed by 617 police officers — a response rate of 34 per cent. The comparison of subgroups (grouped by gender and role in each sector) enabled us to observe any differences in levels and type of stress. Differences between genders, sectors and roles emerged, but overall the study population generally demonstrated good use of positive coping strategies. Women in all operational service roles were more vulnerable to both organizational and operational stressors than men, while men were more vulnerable to organizational stressors.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that for Italian police officers, training courses and support in dealing with occupational stress should take into account gender, role and type of work. Tailored training courses and support programs could be useful and effective tools for preventing stress before it becomes chronic. These courses may increase officers' abilities to cope with psychologically arduous situations and the severe psychological distress that can often undermine social functioning.
To access the full report, please visit occmed.oxfordjournals.org.
Race and Policing: An Agenda for Action
David H. Bayley, Michael A. Davis and Ronald L. Davis
The agenda is organized into two parts. Strategic voice argues that problems of race in policing cannot be resolved by the police alone. Tactical agency outlines what the police can do on their own initiative to deal with the operational dilemmas of race — in the communities they serve and in their own organizations.
Strategic voice
We believe there are two messages that police leaders must find the voice to deliver:
- Police need to be supported by policies that address the conditions that cause criminality and disorder in particular places, especially in communities of color.
- Police strategies must expand freedom and justice, not just provide safety.
Tactical agency
Police may do important things to address the dilemmas of race in policing without waiting for outside support in the form of either additional resources or progressive social policies. However, given the number and variety of American police agencies, the implementation of such actions has been uneven. Our suggestions are divided into two parts — engaging the community and managing police agencies.
Engage the community by:
- reorienting the culture of policing from going to war against lawbreakers to engaging with communities to help those at risk and in need.
- embracing community policing as the primary strategy for policing.
- developing the habit of explaining what they are doing whenever they act.
- regularly assessing how people contacted by the police feel about the treatment they received.
- creating a simple, user-friendly system for receiving complaints from the public about police behavior.
- routinely collecting and publishing information about allegations of police misbehavior, the results of investigations into them, and their disciplinary outcomes.
Manage the organization by:
- ensuring officers in supervisory positions demonstrate, by word and action, that protection of human rights should permeate all aspects of policing.
- making sure managers search out and confront racial and ethnic tensions among officers, especially perceptions by minorities that they have not received equitable treatment in assignments of promotions.
- taking time to explain the importance of neighbourhood histories so officers understand the people they will be dealing with.
- developing procedures for evaluating whether officers engage effectively with communities, and reward them in recognizable ways.
Conclusion
The purpose of this article has been to move the discussion about the dilemmas of race in policing from talk to action. Although we think these actions will help ease tensions at the intersection of policing and race, race will remain difficult to talk about.
Developing an empathic voice in contemporary policing is a tall order. But words can shape events, creating new and more positive directions as scenarios unfold. In particular, they can diminish the perception that race is the sole or primary issue affecting police-minority relations.
To access the full report, please visit www.nij.gov.