<p> Police officers are often the first contact a victim of rape has with the criminal justice system and may be the first people to whom rape victims disclose. To examine the extent to which police officers endorse rape myths, this quantitative study assessed their views about rape victims, along with the effects of demographics and experience. The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale--Short Form was administered to 66 patrol officers in Southern California. The officers scored in the mid-range of this scale, which addresses seven different categories of common rape myths, such as "she lied" and "she asked for it." For some rape myths, females and ethnic majority officers indicated less endorsement of rape myths. These findings reveal a need for more in-depth research on police officers. Social workers who work with the victims of rape should advocate for increased education of law enforcement personnel about rape and its victims.</p>

<p> The problem addressed through this program evaluation was that no formal study had been conducted regarding the implementation and effectiveness of the BlueTeam Program (BTP) within the law enforcement agency (LEA) serving as the study site. The BTP is a program that utilizes a computer application to track officer behaviors and alert administrators to potential trends in officer misconduct and complaints against officers. The program evaluation was guided by the process and product segments of Stufflebeam's (2003) content, input, process, and product model. </p><p> To conduct the evaluation, the researcher used a mixed methods approach for analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. The perceptions of LEA stakeholders regarding the BTP, such as the sufficiency of staffing, budget, training, and ongoing support for effective implementation, were first collected. Quantitative data, consisting of archived, deidentified indicators of officer misconduct and complaints against officers acquired through the BTP, were then analyzed. </p><p> Findings of the study were that the BTP was effective in reducing incidents of officer misconduct and complaints against officers and for use in identifying which alerts were valid indicators of misconduct and complaints against officers. The one concern of stakeholders involving the BTP was limited nighttime vision; the recommendation for program improvement is that this shortcoming be addressed to determine possible solutions. Recommendations for future research involve the need for initial determinations, as well as formative evaluations, pertaining to the following three areas: (a) ascertaining the way in which the early intervention system will be used, (b) identifying the indicators of misconduct that will be tracked, and (c) determining the threshold at which the system will issue an alert.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1997. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-07, Section: B, page: 4773. Adviser: Roger L. Greene.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1996. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-08, Section: B, page: 5320. Chair: Michael Acree.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1998. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-08, Section: B, page: 4475. Adviser: Christine Zalewski.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2001. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-04, Section: B, page: 2221. Adviser: Bruce Bongar.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2000. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-08, Section: B, page: 4429. Adviser: Laurie Roehrich.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2001. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 62-05, Section: B, page: 2478.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2002. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 63-03, Section: B, page: 1601. Adviser: Roger L. Greene.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-07, Section: B, page: 3960. Adviser: Wendy Packman.