Teses / dissertações sobre o tema "Psychology (law)"

Police officers decide to detain and search civilians under uncertainty and risk, and both false positive and false negative errors can be costly. The courts apply the reasonable suspicion standard of proof to evaluate the constitutionality of nonconsensual stops and searches, placing an ambiguous and subjective assessment of a poorly understood psychological state at the center of laws, policies, and trainings on police-civilian contact. The law and psychology of suspicion may have important effects on the frequency, accuracy, and reporting of policing decisions. Investigating those effects requires an understanding of the policy landscape of police decision-making and the basic psychology of suspicion.

In this dissertation, I explore suspicion as a legal concept and as a psychological experience. I describe the role of the reasonable suspicion standard in judicial evaluations of the constitutionality of police practices, and the implications for the guidelines and trainings that agencies provide to officers. I contend that legal and quantitative analyses of policing practices should incorporate an understanding of the psychology of individual decision-making and the incentives created by the regulatory environment. The constitutional analysis assumes that civilian behavior, situational circumstances, and prior knowledge all affect an officer’s experience of suspicion and subsequent actions. Very little is known, however, about the basic psychology of suspicion and how it might affect judgment and decision-making.

I investigate the psychological properties and covariates of interpersonal suspicion as reported by lay participants in a series of studies, establishing a baseline to which I will compare the effects of training and professional experience in future research. Using latent variable models and automated text analyses, I find that during experiences of interpersonal suspicion of a stranger, people tend to question the stranger’s intentions and experience intuition, attentiveness, and wariness. In these situations, distrust is more closely associated with emotional arousal than interpersonal suspicion. On average, female participants report slightly higher situational interpersonal suspicion relative to male participants, and participants who identify as Black or African American report lower suspicion relative to those who identify as White, Latino, or Hispanic.

Relative to participants, the people who are targets of situational suspicion are more often described as male, Black, and Latino. On average, participants report a similar degree of suspicion across perceived target gender and racial categories, but there are significant differences among the associated emotions, inferences, and behavioral responses. Participants describing male and Black targets report experiencing greater fear and believing that the target’s behavior was dangerous. Participants describing male targets are more likely to report inferring that the target’s behavior was criminal, relative to participants describing female targets.

The dispositional tendency toward interpersonal suspicion is associated with neuroticism and low agreeableness in two samples of university students, and these findings are insensitive to variations in measurement instruments. In a simulation where university students take on the role of a police officer and report their suspicion in response to either Black or White male targets, I find that aggregate measures of dispositional interpersonal suspicion are uncorrelated with ratings of situational suspicion in response to the stimuli, which do not differ significantly by race of the target. An exploratory analysis suggests that dispositional suspicion, as measured by a single item, is associated with higher ratings of situational suspicion in response to White targets only.

My findings suggest that during experiences of interpersonal suspicion of strangers, people tend to question the stranger’s intentions and experience intuition, attentiveness, and wariness, and that the type of cognitive arousal associated with suspicion may be context-specific. In the concluding discussion, I also identify findings that could be particularly relevant in the legal context, including the salience of intuition in experiences of suspicion and the variation associated with target race in the correlates of suspicion. I aim to advance the current understanding of suspicion and establish a foundation for future research on its role in legal decision-making.

This research provides original data on the study of obsessive-compulsive personality traits in law enforcement. The study explored prevalence of obsessive-compulsive personality traits (OCPT) in law enforcement (compared to the general population) in association with the occupational need for such characteristics in that profession (orderliness, organized, attentive to detail, display restricted affect, adhere to laws and regulations, and assume leadership roles). While many studies seek to explain police personality, no literature could be found regarding prevalence of OCPT in sworn peace officers. Degree of OCPT was measured by the total mean score on the Five Factor Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (FFOCI) and compared using a one-tailed independent samples t-test. Differences between two groups across 12 subscales were analyzed retroactively using a MANOVA for qualitative descriptions of each group. Research revealed, with statistically significant results (p<.01), that prevalence of OCPT is significantly higher overall in law enforcement peace officers when compared to non-law enforcement participants. Results from this study contribute meaningfully to police psychology within the field of forensic psychology. Results have the potential to influence supplemental assessment for peace officer candidacy screening.

Law enforcement agencies face the difficult task of identifying suitable individuals to take on jobs that require certain skills and characteristics. Training new hires requires these agencies' resources, so an important aspect of the hiring process is maximizing these resources and ensuring that as many of these individuals as possible will succeed. Pre-employment screening tools can assist with hiring by identifying notable characteristics, pathology, and attitudes either related to, or vastly different from, the position. Many assessment exist that can contribute to the pre-employment screening process, such as the Law Enforcement Applicant Inventory (LEAI).

The goal of this study was to explore the relationships between scales on the LEAI to better understand how these different areas of interest correlate. Pearson's r statistics were compiled to identify the correlations between each of the eight LEAI scales, including the Honesty, Nonviolence, Drug Avoidance, Risk Avoidance, Safety, Stress Tolerance, Criminal Justice Orientation (CJO), and Candidate Potential Index (CPI) scales. The results showed that all of the LEAI scales were statistically significantly correlated, p < .01, with large effect sizes, r² < .14. A post-hoc power analysis was also run to further investigate these correlations. Each post-hoc analysis yielded a power = 1.00, which may have been affected by the large sample size. Additionally, this study focused on expanding the readily available reliability statistics for the LEAI. Reliability statistics were provided for the Honesty, Nonviolence, Drug Avoidance, Risk Avoidance, Safety, Stress Tolerance, and CJO scales in the form of Cronbach's alpha coefficient and split-half reliability.

The impact of psychological assessment report style (i.e., deficit- versus strength-based reports), report content (e.g., claimant educational background, details of the instant offense, prison behavior), and judicial attitudes toward intellectual disability (ID) were assessed with regard to judicial decision-making in a mock Atkins case. A between-groups study (i.e., strength- and deficit-based report groups) was conducted through the use of a mixed-mode design. Participants included 122 judges serving in either federal or state courts.

Results supported the hypothesis that the style in which a psychological assessment report is written is influential in final case outcome. Specifically, the strength-based report group was significantly more likely to find against ID than the deficit-based group, and the deficit-based group was more likely to find in favor of ID than the strength-based group. Contrary to the hypotheses, judicial attitudes toward ID did not predict the extent to which participants weighed certain report content in their final decision (i.e., relevant evidence against ID, not relevant to the decision, relevant evidence in favor of ID). However, the results showed that the extent to which participants weighed the claimant’s index offense to be evidence in support of ID was a significant predictor of final case outcome; when the index offense was viewed as evidence against ID, participants were more likely to find against ID. Personal experience with the ID population was not a significant predictor of final case outcome, but as knowledge of the diagnostic criteria increased, participants were more likely to find in favor of ID. The perceived credibility of the psychologist who authored the mock report did not predict participant agreement with the report’s final conclusion regarding ID.

Overall, the results of this study indicated that the general style in which psychological assessment reports were written influenced judicial decision-making in a mock Atkins case. In addition, the results of this study revealed that attitudes toward and experience with ID were less influential in judicial decision-making than initially believed. Knowledge of ID was revealed to be a significant predictor of final case outcome. The limitations of this study and suggested directions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the need for a state-wide peer officer support model. Although support services were available, there were inconsistencies in how they were made available throughout the state. A survey was carried out to identify these discrepancies and advise on best practices and recommendations. One major obstacle was the issue of stigma attached to seeking assistance that prevents most officers from seeking services. The survey identified that peer officer support programs have higher rates of utilization over EAPs and mental health professionals. The vast majority of supervisors and officers were supportive of an option for peer officer training and supportive training programs. Smaller departments had fewer services available than larger departments showing a need for a state-wide peer support program. By utilizing the brotherhood of law enforcement personnel, administrators can help to build the foundation of a strong peer support model.

The importance of understanding how individuals appraise and cope with stressors is essential in the overall effective management of stress, especially in high-stress professions such as law enforcement. This study focused on understanding the reasons behind the dissimilarities in the appraisal of stressors and subsequent employment of different coping strategies among a sample of law enforcement officers. Although different variables have been examined independently, there was no clear understanding of the potential relationships between variables such as personality characteristics and coping strategies, especially when considering the appraisal of stressors. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to examine the relationship among appraisal of occupational stressors, personality traits, and coping strategies for a sample of 97 law enforcement officers from the West Virginia State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy Associates. This study included the appraisals of occupational stressors and personality traits as predictor variables and coping strategy choices will serve as the criterion variable. Multiple regression analyses were planned in order to evaluate how stress appraisals and personality traits predict coping strategies. Data were collected by using questionnaires consisting of the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire to measure stress appraisals, the Brief COPE Inventory Questionnaire to identify coping strategies, and the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-3) to provide information on the Big Five Personality constructs. An insufficient number of officers completed the stress questionnaire to complete all of the planned analyses. However, results from multiple regression analyses using personality traits to predict coping suggested that certain personality traits are strongly associated with particular types of problem and emotion-focused coping. These findings have provided a better understanding of personalities and how those fit within the coping process for law enforcement officers.

Detroit has high rates of criminal activities and significant numbers of at-risk residents who have challenges with different types of hardship that include economic issues. Although hardships may include various types of challenges, at-risk residents of Detroit are economically challenged because of Detroit’s economic downfall. The economic hardships lead to the inability to provide for dependent family members, to battle poverty and addiction, and to possibly other family and societal problems. In larger cities, particularly those economically challenged such as Detroit, because of the inability to hire more patrol officers as the result of insufficient financial resources, police seek the collaboration efforts of community members in the form of community policing to reduce crime. Community policing programs are used to reduce the crime and improve the perception of the police among the residents of Detroit, but they are not effective community policing programs as they do not relate to the needs of economically challenged at-risk citizens. The problem is that ineffective community policing increases the crime in Detroit. The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the needs of the economically challenged at-risk residents of Detroit as perceived by those at-risk residents of Detroit who are identified through private-public organizations and to compare those needs with those perceived by the police pertaining to community policing programs. This may help in developing effective community policing programs. It was important in this study to identify the needs of the community residents who may perceive that there is no other way to survive but to commit crime that should be considered in developing community policing programs. The study identified education and training as the most significant issues that challenge the economically at-risk residents of Detroit. This study found that the economically at-risk residents of Detroit believe no help is available to them, but the members of the community police officers stated that some help is available for the economically at-risk residents; however, they are unaware of the programs that can benefit them. Police stated that various programs that can feed, clothe, educate, and teach various skills to the economically at-risk residents of Detroit are available and the community policing officers through current neighborhood policing programs can direct the residents to proper resources that they may need. The research instrument consisted of semi-structured interviews of at-risk residents focusing on issues that could identify the people’s needs and attempt to understand if the current community policing programs have been addressing these needs of Detroit’s at-risk residents. In this study, the results of the interviews and the questionnaires’ responses were used to identify, code, and categorize patterns found in the improving the community policing in Detroit data.

The purpose of this research is to address how coercive police interrogation tactics can lead to a phenomenon rising in social consciousness, false confessions, with specific attention paid to the most popular form of police interrogation tactics, the Reid Technique. This research surveyed current law students to understand their perspectives regarding perceived coercion of certain interrogation tactics and the likelihood that such coercive interrogation tactics would elicit a false confession. The researcher also set out to determine if providing the psychology behind coercive interrogation tactics, and how they may lead to false confessions is perceived as useful to law students, and how likely it is that they would utilize such information in their future practices. This research is a first of its kind in that no other research has examined false confessions as related to law students; the only research regarding surveying criminal justice professionals surveyed law enforcement professionals, the interrogators, themselves. Although, presumably, due to a low sample size no significance was determined for the intervention used, there are still practical applications for the results of the research conducted.

The purpose of this study was to explore the occupational stress on law enforcement officer relationships and if there is a positive or negative impact. Researchers suggest that law enforcement officers carry occupational stress and work- related behaviors home, which may cause negative impacts on their relationships. To accomplish this task a mixed method study examined occupational stress as perceived by law enforcement personnel assignments throughout the Tri-cities of Richmond Virginia to include the County of Henrico and the City of Richmond to determine the existence of stress experienced and relationships. There is not enough known about the difficulties officers experience in their relationships with their loved ones resulting from occupational stress and whether such factors have negative or positive impacts on their emotions and behaviors when at home. A qualitative method of research included one-on-one interviews with 15 full time active law enforcement officers from various ranks, genders, and assignments. Additionally, quantitative methods of research included the usage of Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op and PSQ-Org) to measure both operational and organizational stress, and the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) to measure the influence on relationships of the officers. These surveys were administered to 89 full time active law enforcement officers from various ranks, genders, and assignments from the City of Richmond and the County of Henrico.

The conceptual themes endorsed by the law enforcement officers were (1) impact of occupational stress, (2) communication and stress (3) whether occupational stress is negative or positive, and (4) resources and support system for significant others. The differences in how the law enforcement officers perceived their stress and the implications on their relationships include (1) lack of resources for significant others, (2) officers finding ways to manage stress, (3) significant others finding ways to manage stress, (4) officer need to communicate with significant other, (5) providing informational and educational sessions for significant others (6) support system for significant others and family members and (7) department providing a support system of resources to manage stress for officers.

The results found suggest implications for law enforcement departments to implement several items to assist with officer occupational stress and their significant relationships. The results of the study described the need for programs, services and resources for officers and their significant others. This includes (1) orientation for officer significant others to assist with understand work schedules and work demands of officers, (2) provide counseling sessions and peer network groups for significant others, (3) provide appreciation and reward to officers that will create a positive work environment, (4) improving training programs to assist officers with physical, emotional and psychological stressors, and (5) intervention measures to assist officers to perform at their highest level and reduce a stressful home environment for their families reducing strain on relationships.

The law enforcement officers perceived that their departments should do more to assist their significant others in understanding their work demands. Additionally, officers explained the departments must do more to ensure that their significant understand what to do if the officer is experiencing occupational stress or a traumatic incident. The officers expressed that their occupational stress have both negative and positive implications in their significant relationships. The officers explained the importance of communication with their significant other as it relates to occupational stress and their relationships

Research suggests that most Americans harbor weight-related prejudices, which can translate into discrimination against the obese across a variety of contexts. Yet, little is known about how anti-fat bias may influence juror decisions in cases involving an obese trial participant. This study examined the main and interactive effects of plaintiff weight, deliberations, and individual differences on jurors’ decisions in a medical malpractice case. The Culpable Control Model (CCM) was used to ground the research and to help illuminate the attributional processes underlying mock jurors’ decisions.

College student mock jurors were presented with a photograph of either a normal weight or obese plaintiff and assigned to non-deliberating or deliberating conditions. After reading the case summary, non-deliberating jurors rendered case judgments independently and responded to a series of items designed to measure attributional processes in accordance with the CCM. Deliberating jurors also reviewed the case summary independently but then discussed the case in small groups; each group rendered case judgments as a jury. Following deliberations, jury group members were instructed to provide independent, “individual level” responses to the same series of items completed by the non-deliberating jurors. Several individual differences were assessed in the total sample, including belief in a just world (BJW), belief in the protestant work ethic (BPWE), and anti-fat attitudes (AFAs).

Results revealed no main effects of plaintiff weight on case-related judgments or on any of the measures of attributional processes. However, deliberations and several individual difference variables moderated the effects of plaintiff weight on the dependent variables. Contrary to expectations, deliberations appeared to exacerbate rather than attenuate the effects of anti-fat bias on jurors’ decisions. Compared to non-deliberating jurors, deliberating jurors were more likely to find the obese plaintiff responsible for the negative medical outcome and awarded fewer non-economic damages to the obese plaintiff. Numerous individual differences variables moderated the effects of plaintiff weight on the dependent variables, but BJW was the strongest, most consistent moderator. As expected, those with stronger just world beliefs were less likely to find the defendant liable and were overall more punitive toward the obese plaintiff than those with weaker beliefs. Analyses further indicated that jurors’ attributional processes were consistent with those proposed by the CCM, such that their initial reactions to the case and the plaintiff and defendant influenced their interpretation of attributional information and criteria, which in turn influenced their case decisions. Significant findings not directly tied to formally advanced hypotheses also emerged. Overall, deliberating jurors were more lenient toward the defendant than non-deliberating jurors. In addition, analyses revealed several main effects of individual difference variables on case judgments and attributional processes.

This research is limited in terms of verisimilitude and generalizability; yet, it also yields many significant findings that have thus far been undocumented in published studies. Both the contributions and limitations of this study illuminate exciting directions for future research. In particular, more research is needed to clarify how anti-fat bias may affect jurors’ in particular circumstances, how civil jurors’ decisions may be impacted by deliberations and individual differences more generally, and how the CCM can best be used to help understand decision-making in applied contexts.

Sex offender legislation is designed to make communities feel safer, with little or no empirical data utilized in the law's creation. The existing research indicates that rates of rapes have decreased since major sex offender legislation was developed and implemented. However, the research has also demonstrated that no significant effect occurred regarding recidivism rates following the passage of sex offender legislation.

Previous research demonstrates that social support is essential for successful reentry into the community after incarceration. However, little research examines how incarceration itself impacts social support and how individuals with different incarceration histories have different experiences of social support. This dissertation examined how individuals’ social networks, social support, and wellbeing are predicted by incarceration history. Formerly incarcerated men returning from jail and prison (N = 68) were interviewed in a procedure designed to collect information about their criminal justice histories, to map their social networks, to provide open-ended feedback about their reentry experience, and to collect a variety of other relevant demographic and scale measures. Analyses of the resulting data provided little evidence that an individual’s most recent incarceration impacts their social network, social support, or wellbeing. However, conditions of individuals’ previous and lifetime incarcerations did have significant predictive power. Individuals who were incarcerated for longer in prison in the past, incarcerated in any setting for longer in the past, incarcerated in any setting for longer throughout their lifetime, and/or incarcerated further from home throughout their lifetime were found to have less support available to them. Conditions of previous and lifetime incarceration also predicted alter closeness, the incarceration history of alters, and participant wellbeing. The relationships between previous and lifetime incarceration and these outcomes were not mediated by participants’ prisonization or by their identification with people inside or people outside of prison and jail. Qualitative analyses provided additional information about support during reentry, including highlighting the physical and emotional distance created by incarceration, the important role that technology and social media plays in support after reentry, and the complicated nature of relationships with other individuals who have been incarcerated. These findings can be used by correctional facilities, probation and parole officers, and non-profit and government service providers to help determine which reentering individuals are least likely to have support and close network members, and which individuals are most likely to have a greater prevalence of formerly incarcerated network members and poor wellbeing. Providing these individuals with additional reentry services has the potential to reduce recidivism and increase public safety.

The South Asian American population growth rate is high, however, there is little research regarding their mental health concerns and low utilization of services. One of the most understudied and complex issues is the interpersonal relationships of South Asian women, specifically the relationship between a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. This study is a first to examine the relationship between a South Asian daughter-in-law and mother-in-law living in the US through a combination of feminist and relational-cultural perspectives. Also investigated are the help-seeking sources daughter-in-laws use for personal/emotional and domestic violence concerns. Participants in this web-based, descriptive study were 155 married (or previously married) South Asian American women (ages 18-69), who had a mother-in-law. Most identified as Muslims or Hindus. T-tests, correlations, and standard multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between the daughter-in-laws' perceptions of their relationship with their mother-in-laws, cultural values, and formal and informal help-seeking for personal/emotional and domestic violence issues. Instruments used were adapted to be culturally sensitive. Thirty-five percent of the participants reported psychological abuse and 23% reported emotional abuse by their mother-in-laws. All identified caring and controlling aspects of their relationship with their mother-in-law. Most of the women did not meet full criteria for partner violence, however the daughter-in-law/mother-in-law relationship differed between the women who were abused by their partner and those who were not. Perceived care and control from mother-in-law was related to daughter-in-law's sex role expectations, partner violence, and help-seeking. Daughter-in-law's help-seeking sources differed depending on the type of problem; as with previous studies and cultural expectations most identified informal help-seeking sources. Higher care from mother-in-law predicted lower help-seeking intentions from mother-in-law for personal issues and domestic violence. Sex role expectations and partner violence predicted help-seeking from minister for personal issues. Intimate relations and partner violence predicted higher likelihood of help-seeking from minister for domestic violence. To promote interpersonal health among South Asian American women, it is necessary to explore and comprehend the nature of in-law relationships and study both positive and the negative in-law relationships. Implications of these findings for women's personal relationships, for clinical work and future research needs are discussed.