Thesis (LL.M.) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / Refer to document

<p>The police interview is one of the most important investigative tools that law enforcement has close at hand, and police interview methods have changed during the twentieth century. A good police interview is conducted in the frame of the law, is governed by the interview goal, and is influenced by facilitating factors that may affect the elicited report. The present doctoral dissertation focuses on police interviews in cases of very serious crimes of violence and sexual offences. Results reveal crime victims’ and perpetrators’ experiences of being interviewed and police officers’ attitudes towards conducting interviews related to traumatizing crimes. Study 1 revealed that when police officers interviewed <i>murderers</i> and <i>sexual offenders</i>, the interviewees perceived attitudes characterized by either <i>dominance</i> or <i>humanity</i>. Police interviews marked by dominance and suspects’ responses of <i>anxiety</i> were mainly associated with a higher proportion of denials, whereas an approach marked by humanity, and responses of being <i>respected</i> were significantly associated with admissions. In line with Study 1, the victims of rape and aggravated assault in Study 2 also revealed the experience of two police interview styles, where an interviewing style marked by <i>dominance </i>and responses of <i>anxiety</i> was significantly associated with crime victims’ omissions of information. Moreover, a <i>humanitarian</i> interviewing style, and crime victims’ feelings of being <i>respected</i> and <i>co-operative,</i> was significantly related to crime victims providing all information from painful events. Special squad police officers’ attitudes towards<i> interviewing</i> <i>crime victims</i>, in Study 3, also showed a <i>humanitarian</i> approach and <i>two dominant approaches</i>, one affective and the other refusing. The attitude towards <i>interviewing suspects</i> of crimes in focus revealed <i>humanitarian</i> and <i>dominant</i> interviewing attitudes, and an approach marked by <i>kindness</i>. The present thesis shows that, during their entire career, an overwhelming majority of the special squad police officers have experienced stressful events during patrol as well as investigative duty. Results show that symptoms from stressful event exposures and coping mechanisms are associated with negative attitudes towards interviewing suspects and supportive attitudes towards crime victim interviews. Thus, experiences from stressful exposures may automatically activate ego-defensive functions that automatically generate dominant attitudes. Moreover, it is important to offer police officers who have been exposed to stressful events the opportunity to work through their experiences, for example, through debriefing procedures. After debriefings, police officers are better prepared to meet crime victims and suspects and, through conscious closed-loop processes, to conduct police interviews without awaking ego-defensive functions. </p>

<p>Krisstöd som syftar till att lindra stress för poliser i yttre tjänst är en förutsättning för att uppnå en god arbetsmiljö. Enligt tidigare forskning bör personers behov och inställning tas i beaktande vid planeringen av krisstöd. Vad personer har för inställning till krisstöd kan studeras i form av attityder. Personers självkänsla är besläktat med känslighet för stress vilket kan påverka behov av krisstöd. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om copingresurser och självkänsla hade någon betydelse för attityd till krisstöd. Poliser i yttre tjänst deltog (<em>N</em> = 101, varav 29 kvinnor). Coping Resource Inventory (CRI), två skalor av självkänsla samt ett eget konstruerat frågeformulär för mätning av attityder till krisstöd användes. Resultaten visade att copingresurser och självkänsla hade betydelse för positiv attityd till krisstöd. Detta indikerar att högre bassjälvkänsla och högre copingresurser, via mer positiv attityd, utgör en nyckel till ett mer lyckat krisstöd.</p>

The police interview is one of the most important investigative tools that law enforcement has close at hand, and police interview methods have changed during the twentieth century. A good police interview is conducted in the frame of the law, is governed by the interview goal, and is influenced by facilitating factors that may affect the elicited report. The present doctoral dissertation focuses on police interviews in cases of very serious crimes of violence and sexual offences. Results reveal crime victims’ and perpetrators’ experiences of being interviewed and police officers’ attitudes towards conducting interviews related to traumatizing crimes. Study 1 revealed that when police officers interviewed murderers and sexual offenders, the interviewees perceived attitudes characterized by either dominance or humanity. Police interviews marked by dominance and suspects’ responses of anxiety were mainly associated with a higher proportion of denials, whereas an approach marked by humanity, and responses of being respected were significantly associated with admissions. In line with Study 1, the victims of rape and aggravated assault in Study 2 also revealed the experience of two police interview styles, where an interviewing style marked by dominance and responses of anxiety was significantly associated with crime victims’ omissions of information. Moreover, a humanitarian interviewing style, and crime victims’ feelings of being respected and co-operative, was significantly related to crime victims providing all information from painful events. Special squad police officers’ attitudes towards interviewing crime victims, in Study 3, also showed a humanitarian approach and two dominant approaches, one affective and the other refusing. The attitude towards interviewing suspects of crimes in focus revealed humanitarian and dominant interviewing attitudes, and an approach marked by kindness. The present thesis shows that, during their entire career, an overwhelming majority of the special squad police officers have experienced stressful events during patrol as well as investigative duty. Results show that symptoms from stressful event exposures and coping mechanisms are associated with negative attitudes towards interviewing suspects and supportive attitudes towards crime victim interviews. Thus, experiences from stressful exposures may automatically activate ego-defensive functions that automatically generate dominant attitudes. Moreover, it is important to offer police officers who have been exposed to stressful events the opportunity to work through their experiences, for example, through debriefing procedures. After debriefings, police officers are better prepared to meet crime victims and suspects and, through conscious closed-loop processes, to conduct police interviews without awaking ego-defensive functions.

The police interview is one of the most important investigative tools that law enforcement has close at hand, and police interview methods have changed during the twentieth century. A good police interview is conducted in the frame of the law, is governed by the interview goal, and is influenced by facilitating factors that may affect the elicited report. The present doctoral dissertation focuses on police interviews in cases of very serious crimes of violence and sexual offences. Results reveal crime victims’ and perpetrators’ experiences of being interviewed and police officers’ attitudes towards conducting interviews related to traumatizing crimes. Study 1 revealed that when police officers interviewed murderers and sexual offenders, the interviewees perceived attitudes characterized by either dominance or humanity. Police interviews marked by dominance and suspects’ responses of anxiety were mainly associated with a higher proportion of denials, whereas an approach marked by humanity, and responses of being respected were significantly associated with admissions. In line with Study 1, the victims of rape and aggravated assault in Study 2 also revealed the experience of two police interview styles, where an interviewing style marked by dominance and responses of anxiety was significantly associated with crime victims’ omissions of information. Moreover, a humanitarian interviewing style, and crime victims’ feelings of being respected and co-operative, was significantly related to crime victims providing all information from painful events. Special squad police officers’ attitudes towards interviewing crime victims, in Study 3, also showed a humanitarian approach and two dominant approaches, one affective and the other refusing. The attitude towards interviewing suspects of crimes in focus revealed humanitarian and dominant interviewing attitudes, and an approach marked by kindness. The present thesis shows that, during their entire career, an overwhelming majority of the special squad police officers have experienced stressful events during patrol as well as investigative duty. Results show that symptoms from stressful event exposures and coping mechanisms are associated with negative attitudes towards interviewing suspects and supportive attitudes towards crime victim interviews. Thus, experiences from stressful exposures may automatically activate ego-defensive functions that automatically generate dominant attitudes. Moreover, it is important to offer police officers who have been exposed to stressful events the opportunity to work through their experiences, for example, through debriefing procedures. After debriefings, police officers are better prepared to meet crime victims and suspects and, through conscious closed-loop processes, to conduct police interviews without awaking ego-defensive functions.

Krisstöd som syftar till att lindra stress för poliser i yttre tjänst är en förutsättning för att uppnå en god arbetsmiljö. Enligt tidigare forskning bör personers behov och inställning tas i beaktande vid planeringen av krisstöd. Vad personer har för inställning till krisstöd kan studeras i form av attityder. Personers självkänsla är besläktat med känslighet för stress vilket kan påverka behov av krisstöd. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om copingresurser och självkänsla hade någon betydelse för attityd till krisstöd. Poliser i yttre tjänst deltog (N = 101, varav 29 kvinnor). Coping Resource Inventory (CRI), två skalor av självkänsla samt ett eget konstruerat frågeformulär för mätning av attityder till krisstöd användes. Resultaten visade att copingresurser och självkänsla hade betydelse för positiv attityd till krisstöd. Detta indikerar att högre bassjälvkänsla och högre copingresurser, via mer positiv attityd, utgör en nyckel till ett mer lyckat krisstöd.

Contents of Thesis and Abstract: In a highly democratic nation, a majority of the national affairs are determined by the opinions of civilians. All public departments work their utmost to pursue ¡§public satisfaction.¡¨ As one of the control bodies of the society, the police organization not only performs intervening and banning acts, but also has to pay attention to the quality of its service to the public. Between the roles the police should play, there exists an extremely great conflict. Undoubtedly, there creates additional burden to the work of the police, which was originally under high working pressure and high degree of tiredness. According to Clause 2 of the Police Act of Taiwan, ¡§The duties of the police are to maintain public order, protect social safety, prevent all the dangers and harms, and facilitate the welfare of people according to laws.¡¨ However, in practice, the complicatedness of duties of the police in Taiwan and the multiplicity of businesses the police involves can be considered of the highest level in the world. The district on-duty police officers, who always stand on the frontline and have frequent contacts with citizens, are just the most basic-level police officers implementing different kinds of administrative work of the police. In view of this, this paper finds out the factors affecting the working pressure and job satisfaction of district on-duty police officers as well as their extents, hoping to understand whether they have strong preference for the change of duties in turn. It is hoped that the study can help improve the quality of both the district on-duty police officers and the administrative work of the police. The study took 1,202 district on-duty police officers subordinating to the Police Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government as the research targets, and employed the way of questionnaire survey to carry out the research. There were 430 questionnaires sent out, and 405 valid questionnaires were returned. After using the statistical software, SPSS to undergo descriptive analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, related and regressive statistical analysis, the study acquires the following results: 1. Part of the facets of working pressure, job satisfaction and the preference for the change of duties in turn has significant difference if there is a difference in the statistical variables of part of the attributes of individuals. 2. Working pressure has significant negative relativity and significant negative effects on job satisfaction. 3. Job satisfaction has significant negative relativity to the preference for the change of duties in turn. The facet of ¡§internal satisfaction¡¨ has significant negative effects on the facet of ¡§preference for the change of duties in turn,¡¨ but has significant positive effects on the facet of ¡§perception for the change of duties in turn.¡¨ The facet of ¡§external satisfaction¡¨ has significant positive effects on the facet of ¡§perception for the change of duties in turn.¡¨ 4. Working pressure has significant positive relativity to the preference for the change of duties in turn. The ¡§personal factor of pressure¡¨ has significant positive effects on the preference for the change of duties in turn. ¡§External environmental pressure¡¨ has significant positive effects on the facet of ¡§preference for the change of duties in turn.¡¨ 5. When both working pressure and job satisfaction at the same time perform regressive statistics on the preference for the change of duties in turn, the results show that job satisfaction really has mediating effect. Keywords: district on-duty police officers, working pressure, job satisfaction, preference for the change of duties in turn

行政裁量議題研究一直為法學界與公共行政學界，討論公部門的研究核心重點之一，然法學界重其結果的影響性，公共行政學界重其組織中的運作。據此，無論官僚受到規則如何的嚴密監控，當工作授權下級，便會產生模糊的行使空間。因此，在公共行政的下的觀點，已非單純考量規則是否會造成侵害，更注重官僚本身行使時的價值及其限制性。 再者，本文以警察單位為研究對象，理由在於其依法行政時，面對社會事件，常考驗其判斷力與抉擇與人性面的挑戰，此一特色，與提供服務性質的公部門大不相同。但另一方面，為避免基層員警的裁量權使用不當，在取締告發、逮捕追緝等須受到法規與組織內部的約束。 本文視裁量權行使為決策行為的一種，對於影響個人裁量行為的問題，乃由工作面與個人行為約束面探討既有權限下對決策的影響力。從裁量執行的強度歸結出得過且過與執法不阿兩種行為類型。而影響行為選擇者，歸結出個人層面裡個人責任感、對工作的熟悉度；工作層面裡管理的嚴密度、行政課責及人情關係。統計結果發現，人口統計變項部分，裁量行為類型與專業類別、學歷及年紀的差異有關；而五個自變項對依變項均有顯著差異。 本文共計五章。第一章為諸論敘明研究動機、研究目的、研究方法與限制。第二章藉由分析現有研究而歸納出行政裁量研究之重點，整理出法制面、組織理論面與代理人理論面下不同的裁量觀。再者，由決策理論中檢視人類的行為研究，最後與警察人員作整合。第三章為研究設計。第四章以統計結果作變項間之關聯性探討，第五章整理出本文研究結果並提出政策建議。 本文由決策的描述面研究，在政策建議上較難提供完全有效的處方，但仍可由組織與個人兩方面著手思考相關配套。就組織面而言，管理者應對行政課責、管理技術作適當的調控；績效考核宜注重對工作熟悉度的正面義意；決策透明化與行政倫理的遵守，以化解人情的壓力；另外，養成教育過程中，除專業技能外，不能忽略行政倫理重要性；定期檢視法令變遷後，對程序的差異性。而在個人面，鼓勵成員對裁量困境的回饋；重視資深基層人員人力資源的經驗傳承；增進服務品質以提昇警察聲望。以期對基層員警運用於裁量行使的過程中，有助其豐富判斷力，得到較佳的結果。 / Discretion is a core issue in law, concerned with facts and consequences, while in public administration concerned with power operation in public organizations. In public administration aspect, discretion emphasizes on the values and limits in bureaucratic implementation rather than on the harm of rules. No matter how bureaucrats are strictly monitored by rules, the fact of blur in execution due to delegation of authority still exists. The object of this study focuses on the street-level bureaucrats, junior-ranking-police-officers. On the one hand, they often confront with social events in using discretionary power with their judgment. Sometimes they deal with the events and have to face the challenges on humanity side. On the other hand, in order to avoid the abuse of discretionary power, they are always restricted by rules and organizational norms in the execution of enforcement, informing violators and arresting suspects. This paper researches the issue of discretionary power in the aspects of job and individual. Dependent variables are consisted of soft enforcement and strict enforcement. Independent variables are those of the degree of strict management, the familiar of work, interaction of favoritism pressure, the responsibility of individual and administrative accountability. There are five chapters in this study. Chapter one is an introduction to study motives, purposes, research methods and limits et cetera. Chapter two is engaged to literature review reading the differences between discretion in law, organization and principal-agent aspects and the descriptive decision theory of heuristics in human daily life under uncertainty. Finally this study made effects to integrate them into the practices of junior-ranking-police-officers’ discretionary power. Chapter three is consisted of research design about research framework, hypotheses, questionnaire and its reliability and validity. Chapter four is discussed the statistical result. Chapter five is the conclusion and policy suggestion of this study. Because of applying descriptive approach, the finding of this study won’t provide for directly prescriptions for management, but they still could help us to understand real interactions in some way. For the management side, the balance art of management technology, administrative accountability, and job performance is important for managers. Secondly, better education makes better enforcement. Decision in transparent and administrative ethics could reduce improper outside pressure. Thirdly, an individual policeman should pay more attention on learning law enforcement. At last, policemen not only learn knowledge in ordinary time but give the dilemma feedback would be helpful for managers.

Traditionally and historically certain jobs have been recognized as male or female professions leading to the assumption that the barrier crossing men and women working in these gender atypical jobs are being less masculine and less feminine. The aim of this study is to examine similarities and differences among male social workers and female police officers in the experience of being a gender minority in their workplace and how it effects the construction of their gender identity. Working with a qualitative approach and using semi-constructed interviews the study was conducted by interviewing a total of five social workers and four female police officers, in six different communities, about their personal experiences of being a gender minority in a gender atypical job. The result shows both differences and similarities between the genders and their occupation; on a personal level neither of the respondents seemed to have a problem working in a gender atypical job although admitting that working in a “female” and “male” profession  had effects on their personality but not on how they viewed themselves as men or women. On a group level the respondents experienced both differences and similarities; both genders talked about being stereotyped into taking on certain tasks but also about having advantages of being male or female in certain situations. Further on the female police officers talked about being pushed aside to give room for the male colleagues while the male social workers experienced the opposite; being more acknowledged. On a societal level respondents from both groups were talking about a shift in societies showcasing that the view on men and women and what is considered male and female have been or in a process of being disintegrated. The results were seen from a social constructionist viewing point and were interpreted and analyzed using following theories and theoretical concepts: Stereotype, gender, role theory, identity, gender identity and the theory about the mirrored self.

Tyrimo aktualumas (trumpai) Bakalauro darbo tema aktuali netik vidaus tarnybos sistemos, bet ir kūno kultūros bei sporto problema, nes pareigūnų rengimo funkciją turi užtikrinti kvalifikuoti kūno kultūros ir sporto specialistai. Sporto mokslininkai nagrinėja policijos pareigūnų fizinio parengtumo vertinimo sistemą bei pareigūnų fizinio parengtumo pokyčius, ieško blogo pareigūnų parengtumo priežasčių. Šios problemos sprendimas įmanomas tik bendradarbiaujant kūno kultūros bei sporto ir Vidaus reikalų ministerijos pareigūnams Dar 2004 m. A. Kutavičius ir S Dadelo, atlikę tyrimus padarė išvadą, kad pareigūnų fizinis parengtumas yra žemo lygio ir normatyvų neivykdė beveik 65 proc. pareigūnų. Tyrimų objektas – pirminės grandies policininkų bendrasis parengtumas bei jo lavinimo(si) galimybės (sąlygos). Tyrimo tikslas – pirminės grandies policijos pareigūnų bendrasis ir specialusis fizinis parengtumas bei jų siekis gerinti jį per fizinę saviugdą. Tyrimo metodai: teorinė analizė ir jos apibendrinimas, anketinė apklausa, testavimas, matematinė statistika. Tiriamoji imtis - 154 policijos pareigūnai, kurių amžius svyravo nuo 20 iki 54 m. Išvados. 1. Pareigūnai teigiamai vertina fizinio aktyvumo pratybų poveikį. Tačiau dėl netinkamo privalomų sporto treniruočių organizavimo įstaigoje, skurdžios sporto bazės, didelio darbo krūvio, mankštinimosi įpročio neturėjimo, kitų laisvalaikio praleidimo formų pripažinimo, ligų neįvykdo minimalių fizinio aktyvumo reikalavimu. 2. Pareigūno amžius... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The relevance of the research. The subject of the bachelor thesis is not only a relevant problem of Internal Affairs Office but also a problem of physical education and sport since qualified specialists of physical education and sport have to ensure the function of officers’ training. Sport scientists analyze the evaluation system and changes of police officers’ physical fitness and look for the reasons of officers’ poor training. The solution of this problem is possible when officers of physical education and sport as well as officers of Ministry of the Interior cooperate. In 2004 A. Kutavičius and S. Dadelo performed the research and came to the conclusion that officers’ physical fitness is of a low level and almost 65% of them did not correspond to the required normatives. The subject of the research is general fitness of primary level officers and opportunities of their training. The aim of the research is general and special fitness of primary level officers and their striving to improve it through physical self-education. The methods of the research: theoretical analysis and its generalization, questionnaire, testing, mathematical statistics. The sample of the research: 154 police officers whose age ranged from 20 to 54. Conclusions. Officers positively evaluate the influence of physical activity training. However, minimal requirements of physical activity are not fulfilled due to the inappropriate organization of compulsory sport training in the office, poor sport... [to full text]