Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

M.A. (Clinical Psychology) / Criminological trends indicate that there is a move in the direction of sexual, violent sexual, and motiveless violent offenses in society. One of the aspects of psychological involvement in combating crime is profiling, where the scene of crime is analyzed to provide the investigating officer with an indication of the personality type of the person who may have been involved in committing the crimes. An overview of the literature indicates that the profiling of serial crimes takes place according to a certain process, involving an analysis of the physical evidence from the scene of the crime, the use of decision-making process models and crime appraisal, and the eventual compilation of a profile. The problem that has been investigated involves the dynamics of profiling in the South African Police Service using registered psychologists who do not have experience in the process, do not know how accurate the compiled profile is nor how the information at their disposal has been used to reach certain conclusions regarding the biographical details of the offender. A qualitative approach was followed in this investigation. The research participants were expected to scrutinise a case study of a real murder, and to generate hypotheses regarding certain biographical characteristics of the offender who was unknown to them. These data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire which was evaluated and interpreted in a qualitative manner. In general, the research participants were able to reach conclusions about the personality profile of the unknown offender. Consensus was reached without the participants discussing the results which suggests that the training of psychologists provides valuable insights and skills which enable them to perform the profiling task with a considerable degree of accuracy.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MCom.( Dept. of Industrial Psychology, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences)) --University of the Western Cape, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-187).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

M.A. / Despite the fact that the helping professions in the SAPS make use of a multi-professional team approach to provide a service with regards to trauma intervention, statistics confirm that there is still a high occurrence of stress-related problems amongst police officials'. The aim of this study is to explore and describe the police officials' experience of trauma and the trauma intervention programmes in the SAPS, in order to create guidelines and to make certain recommendations with regard to client-focussed programmes for police officials' attached to the high-risk units in the Eastern Cape. The aims of this study were best realised by the exploratory and descriptive goals of fundamental research as expounded by de Vos et al. (1998). The exploratory and descriptive goal ofthe problem is best achieved by combining the qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, as proposed by Cresswell (1994). For the purposes of this study, the researcher has first made use of a qualitative approach to research. The population with regards to this phase of the study consisted of the police officials' attached to the high risk units in Port Elizabeth. The researcher made use of the purposive sampling method in order to select the participants of the focus group. A semi-structured interview schedule, consisting of four pre-designed questions, was employed in order to obtain maximum information on the subject. The four questions are as follows: experience of trauma, impact on and reaction to trauma, coping with trauma and the experience of trauma intervention programmes. The themes arising from the findings are divided into eleven categories including the classification of their respective sub-categories. The categories are as follows: 1) the concept trauma, 2) traumatic incidents, 3) trauma reinforcers, 4) post traumatic events, 5) post traumatic stress disorder, 6) social support, 7) avoidance/denial, 8) problem-focussed coping, 9) consumer orientation, 1 0) consumer satisfaction and 11) a core marketing strategy. A quantitative approach was used during the second phase of the study, whereby the themes that resulted from the findings of the focus group interview, were distributed amongst the police officials' representing the high risk units in the Eastern Cape. The latter was done in order to explore the extent of the items arising from the focus group in the population. For the purposes of the second phase of the study, the researcher employed the simple random sampling method, whereby 10% of the population was selected. The researcher made use of the group administered method whereby respondents were involved in a group and were thereby provided with an opportunity to complete the questionnaire. The social workers responsible for the high risk units in the various areas in the Eastern Cape were trained as field workers in order to facilitate the completion of the questionnaire by means of the group administered method. The following conclusions were drawn from the findings. Firstly, it is concluded that the police officials' attached to the high risk units in the Eastern Cape are exposed to a variety of traumatic incidents. The latter vary with regards to occurrence and intensity. The nature, frequency and intensity of the incident have an influence on the extent to which police officials' experience these incidents as traumatic, and this also influences the cumulative impact thereof on the individual. The internal and external stress factors which police officials' are exposed to on a daily basis in the carrying out of their duties, also plays an important role in the extent to which police officials' are capable of coping with trauma. In some cases it is experienced so intensely that it leads to a traumatic reaction by some police officials'. Secondly, it is concluded that police officials' generally react differently, depending on their exposure to trauma. These reactions are generally similar to the symptoms of post-traumatic stress and post traumatic stress disorder. Thirdly, the conclusion is reached that police officials' reveal different coping styles. These vary with specific reference to social support, avoidance/denial and problem focussed coping mechanisms. Lastly, it is concluded that the trauma intervention programmes are not consumer orientated as a thorough needs assessment is not done and police officials' individual needs, expectations, perceptions and preferences are not taken into consideration most of the time. Police officials' are also greatly dissatisfied with the programmes because the elements of the marketing strategy, with specific reference to product, place, cost and promotion as expounded by Terblanche (1993), do not live up to their expectations and perceptions of the programme. Finally, the findings were compared with each other, whereafter certain conclusions were reached and a number of recommendations were made.

No description available.

People with mental illness (PMI) are at a 67% greater risk of arrest and 16 times greater risk of being killed during a police incident than other civilians. Indeed, law enforcement officers (LEOs) report lacking expertise when addressing mental health calls, and existing trainings aimed at reducing violence in LEO encounters with PMI do not account for challenges specific to rural LEOs. Additionally, many trainings are severely lacking in assessing outcome changes pre- and post-training with more than half of trainings relying on survey-based knowledge subject to social desirability bias and inaccurate self-assessment. This study aimed to address limitations in the research on de-escalation trainings by testing the efficacy of a one-hour deescalation training adapted from the Crisis Intervention Team training program for rural LEOs. Furthermore, this study aimed to establish initial evidence of validity and reliability in using standardized actor simulation as a behavioral measure for de-escalation training. Simulation-based education and assessment has been a mainstay of medical education for several decades and is used in medical school curricula worldwide. Results suggested that the one-hour curriculum offered several benefits for participants’ self-reported attitudes and behavioral application of de-escalation strategies. Results also suggested that simulation-based assessment is a reliable and valid measure of the application of de-escalation strategies. Such standardized actor simulations may pave the path for computer-based simulations, such as virtual reality (VR) simulations, with LEOs. This will represent a notable advance for rural police departments as VR is far more scalable and accessible than simulated actors. VR may provide the same evaluation and training benefits while reducing costs.

This study examined police officers' perceptions of self, occupational role and their relation to perceived stress and posttraumatic stress symptomology. Self-report measures for the study variables were completed by 101 police officers. Hypotheses predicted that perception of self and role would be associated with perception of stress and that perception of the stress would mediate PTSD symptomology. Neuroticism, job quality and general job satisfaction were the main predictors of stress. Stress levels mediated between 1) job quality and the symptoms of anxious arousal and impaired self-reference; 2) general job satisfaction and the symptoms of defensive avoidance and dissociation; and 3) neuroticism and the symptom of defensive avoidance. This implies that police officers' job quality, their feelings of general job satisfaction, and low levels of neuroticism are important in alleviating stress and subsequent psychological sequela.