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Month: December 2018

Understanding how Police Officers Think About Mental | Emotional Disturbance Calls

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Abstract

Police officers frequently respond to calls involving persons with mental illnesses and in doing so, they are key gatekeepers of access to mental health treatment as well as entry into the criminal justice system. Programs such as Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT) are being implemented across the United States and elsewhere to train officers to respond more effectively and facilitate access to mental health services when appropriate. These programs would benefit from a thorough understanding of these encounters from the perspective of police officers. We take as a premise that officers develop frames of reference or “schema” for understanding and responding to these encounters that are shaped by socialization, training, and their experience as police officers. In this study, we examine police officer schema of mental/emotional disturbance (M/EDP) calls. Qualitative interviews provided the foundation to develop the Needs on the Street Interview (NOSI) to tap officer schema of four types of M/EDP scenarios. The NOSI was administered to 147 officers in Chicago and Philadelphia.

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Police Work and Its Effects on the Family

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INTRODUCTION

Police work and how it effects the family is an extremely complex subject. The role of a police officer is ambiguous and requires one to use discretion to perform their duties. While researching this paper it was found that there is minim to no education for officers during their training to guide them in the use of discretion or how to handle stress. Nor is there education offered after assuming their professional role as a police officer on effective techniques to use discretion or handle stress. This in turn causes stress to the officer. The stress that officers incur in their profession can be transferred to or shared by his/her family. Stress can be thought of as a state of extreme difficulty, pressure or strain. To be more precise, stress can be a mentally or emotionally disruptive or upsetting condition occurring in response to adverse external influences and can be capable of affecting physical health (Merriam and Webster, 1980).

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Mental Disturbance in the Law of Torts- A Problem of Legal Lag

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INTRODUCTION

In an era when the frontiers of psychology are steadily retreating before the inexorable advance of science, in an age when the average man is increasingly concerned with the impact of his emotional problems, in a society whose best-selling books include such tides as Peace of Mind and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living -in such a time and in such a culture, the courts have not yet extended a full measure of protection to the interest in mental and emotional tranquillity. It is perhaps the most under- protected interest in the law of torts. If it be true that positive law is the product of the numerous conflicts of interests which characterize every society, then tort law is the product of a specific conflict, that between individual freedom of action on the one hand and individual security on the other. The degree of protection afforded to various interests logically ought to be an index of the value placed

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Gang Behavior, Law Enforcement, and Community Values

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Btween 1960 and 1990 crime rates in the United States increased dramatically: murder rates rose from 5.0 to 9.4 per 100,000; aggravated assaults increased from 85 to 424 per 100,000; and auto theft was up from 182 to 658 per 100,000. The response to this upsurge has been increased law enforcement activity, with the incarceration rate more than doubling. Has this policy been the correct response? Are there policy alternatives that have not been adequately pursued? The “bricks-and-sticks” approach to crime ignores the possibility that changing community attitudes toward crime and law enforcement play a role in the current crime wave and that the proper response must involve a conscious attempt to alter those values. This essay focuses on the role of community values in controlling crime. Community cooperation with local police is essential to law enforcement. Community members decide to cooperate either with the police since the criminals have violated their values or with the criminals,

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Poverty, Broken Homes, Violence: The Making of a Gang Member

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Sylvester Akapalara, 17, Hanzel Saucedo, 18, Genaro Ramirez, 19, Alexander Ibarra, 17, Aljoven Canalete, 19, and Ebony Huel, 16 were all found murdered in gun-related shootings in the past two months. Some of these teens were members of gangs, others were innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Approximately 5750 people were killed in Los Angeles county alone in the past ten years in gang-related violence, many of them children and teenagers. With gangs reportedly recruiting members as young as eleven, this is a social problem that mustn’t be ignored.

There are many risks associated with gang membership including exposure to violent crime, and possible incarceration. Why are so many adolescents willing to join? Several risk factors have been identified that increase the likelihood that a teen will join a gang including the presence of gangs in the neighborhood, having gang members in the family already, histories of

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Preventing Gang Violence and Building Communities Where Young People Thrive

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Introduction

The proliferation of gangs can bring fear and violence to every block of a city. In addition to suffering unacceptably high numbers of deaths and injuries, gang-besieged neighborhoods are plagued by intimidation, economic and physical decay, and withdrawal from civic engagement. As these neighborhoods decline, the bonds that hold communities together weaken: children fear going to school; parks become unusable; shopping and taking a bus to work become dangerous ventures. Fortunately, cities are experimenting with a wide range of new approaches that not only seek to suppress gang violence, but also build communities that do not produce gangs in the first place. According to noted gang expert James Howell, gang-plagued jurisdictions have learned that enforcement and other police actions are not an adequate answer, and that city leaders need to involve the entire community, including neighborhood organizations and residents. “Police should not be expected to assume sole responsibility for youth gang problems. Broad based community collaboration is essential...

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Think It’s Hard Being a Cop? Try Being Married to One.

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These are troubled times for cops and their families. There's an almost constant stream of bad press about law enforcement, a rash of unthinkable acts of violence against police officers, repeated anti-police protests, horrific mass shootings, and the ever-present threat of terrorism that hangs over all our heads. Dash cams, body cameras and cell phone cameras have charged the atmosphere and changed the way officers work. In light of all that is happening, the job looks more dangerous and appears more brutal than ever. But just when things look like they will never get better, there's a stream of good news: demonstrations of love and support from the public and heartwarming praise from unexpected sources on social media. The only thing that is predictable these days is change itself.

The following 10 ideas may help police families navigate these turbulent times.

1. Distinguish between what you can control and what you can't. Consider the doughnut as a way to model the distinction between what you can and can't

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Female Gang Membership: Current Trends and Future Directions

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In the face of the overwhelming violence both perpetuated by and affecting the young men trapped in the world of gang conflict, it is all too easy to overlook the young women who are also stranded in this unsafe, unstable environment. These women, although they make up less than 10 percent of gang members, face the highest rates of victim-offender overlap and often endure cruel, dehumanizing treatment at the hands of the gang members whom they are attempting to appease.1

Motivation for Joining Gangs

In order to properly address and provide solutions to the issue of female gang membership, it is essential to understand why girls and young women join gangs to begin with. Research shows that, perhaps intuitively, they join gangs for many of the same reasons that young men do. These motivating factors include protection from other gangs or neighborhood violence, a source of income, preexisting social or familial connections to the gang, and a path to earning respect.

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The Law Relating to Police Interrogation Privileges and Limitations

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The papers in this symposium will focus on that phase of Criminal Law Administration which chronologically precedes the suspect's first contact with a judicial officer: the phase of police action against or upon a suspect. This is the most important phase of criminal procedure, for here, much more so than during trial, the case is to be won-or lost. We shall assume that there has been contact by a police officer with one suspected of having committed a crime or at least with someone believed to know something about a crime believed to have been committed. A police officer may now enter the picture under any one of three different circumstances. He may (1) be armed with a warrant of arrest, or (2) have the right to make an arrest without a warrant, or (3) he may not yet have reached the stage at which he has the right and duty to effect an arrest...

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Whistleblower Protections Under Federal Law: An Overview

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Summary

Legal protections for employees who report illegal misconduct by their employers have increased dramatically since the late 1970s when such protections were first adopted for federal employees in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. Since that time, with the enactment of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, Congress has expanded such protections for federal employees. Congress has also established whistleblower protections for individuals in certain private-sector employment through the adoption of whistleblower provisions in at least 18 federal statutes. Among these statutes is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). In general, claims for relief under the 18 federal statutes follow a similar pattern. Complaints are typically filed with the Secretary of Labor, and an investigation is conducted. Following the investigation, an order is issued by the Secretary, and a party aggrieved by the order is generally permitted to appeal the...

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An Attribute Approach to Relationships between Offenders and Victims in Homicide

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I. INTRODUCTION

The relationship between the victim and the offender is an important variable in studies of personal violence because it places the event within the context of social structures. Roles such as husband, wife, friend, lover, and stranger are complex social relationships which may delineate homicides that share a distinctive etiology. Furthermore, the moral and legal responses to violence are, to a large extent, determined by the social roles of the victim and offender. Although most studies of personal violence collect information on victim-offender relationships, the literature contains little conceptual guidance and almost no methodological research on the measurement issues. Researchers typically report results as though the distinctions between concepts such as "primary" and "secondary" or "stranger" and "non-stranger" are simple and self-evident.

In practice, however, the classifications are based on complex decisions made by coders working with police documents which frequently contain contradictory testimony and spotty information about victim-offender relationships.

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The Constitutionality of Enjoining Criminal Street Gangs as Public Nuisances

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Cities throughout the nation are plagued by the growth of criminal street gangs. To combat this growth, state and local governments have enacted a wide variety of legislation increasing criminal sanctions for gang behavior. In addition, state and local governments have turned with increasing frequency to civil remedies to augment their criminal law enforcement efforts. Gangs pose a particularly acute problem in California. Reports of gang violence are increasing, and gang-related homicides are at an all-time high in the Los Angeles area. Despite the enactment of new criminal sanctions to combat gangs and the use of existing law enforcement techniques at their constitutional limits, these efforts have not quelled the increase in gang-related crime. 8 Consequentiy, Caiifornia has been particularly innovative in using civil remedies to control gang activity. One such innovation is taking place in the cities of Los Angeles,..

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S-3: Gang Signs, Symbols, Signals, Words, and Conduct Prohibited

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What are Gang Affiliation Laws?

Many states have enacted laws focusing on gang affiliation to prohibit people from joining such groups. The definition of a gang varies, especially when it comes to youth gangs. In general, a gang is an organization, group, or association of at least three people. The gang has:

• A common name • Identifying symbol(s) • Identifying sign(s) • Members who actively participate in crimes

Generally speaking, gang affiliation laws target people who might not necessarily be confirmed members of a gang. However, they might be subject to criminal penalties due to their affiliation with, or association with gangs and gang activity.

For instance, if a person is caught writing graffiti that is associated with a certain gang, that person might be held for questioning regarding their possible membership in that gang.

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NIJ Funded Software Tools, Apps and Databases

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NIJ has funded a number of free or low cost software tools, apps and databases to assist with investigations or research. Find tools for:

• Communications for public safety • Digital forensics • Fire and arson investigation • Forensic DNA • Forensic information management • Forensic anthropology/medicolegal death investigation • Law enforcement investigation • Mapping and analysis • Missing persons • School safety

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