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A psycho-educational programme aimed at dealing with aggressive behaviour exhibited by police officials towards the community.

D.Ed. / The research nature of this study was primarily explorative, and also descriptive. The objective of this study was to explore and describe community experiences of aggressive behaviour exhibited by police officials towards them. This research was of a qualitative nature. Four steps of psycho-educational programme development were followed. In the first step a situational analysis was carried out. The sampling component was purposively selected police officials working under the jurisdiction of specific police stations in Gauteng Province and community members as victims of aggression at the hands of police officials. Data gathering methods used in this research were phenomenological individual and focus group interviews and observations. The researcher conducted the observation for this study during interviews and field notes were written during interview process. The researcher conducted interviews with victims of aggressive behaviour by police officials and other participants were police officials and stakeholders who are dealing with inappropriate behaviour of police officials. The participants had to comment on their experiences of aggression exhibited by police officials and other participants who are police officials in the South African Police Service talk about their experiences when they were involved in aggressive action towards the community. These interviews formed the basis of this study to facilitate the attainment of the primary objective, which was to explore and describe the experience of aggression behaviour exhibited by Police officials towards the community. The data from these interviews were analysed using an open coding method. An independent coder did an analysis independent from the researcher. A consensus validation discussion was held with the independent coder on the codification of the data. The detailed discussion of results obtained from the interviews and observations were presented in verbatim quotes, descriptive and reflective notes and the illustration of emergent themes and categories. Rigour and adequacy were ensured by data collected and the results obtained from data analysis indicated convergence and saturation. The integration of trustworthiness, that is, credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were applied throughout the study. Ethical considerations and consent letters were presented to the participants, including preserving of anonymity, confidentiality, voluntary participation, understood consent and the ethical role of the researcher has adhered to. The research is very important as the experiences of aggression by community members were explored and described. The research results indicated that there is tension among the community and police officials in the South African Police Service. The Police officials under study are demoralised and tend to become negative towards the public because they are of the opinion that enough is not done to support them in performing their difficult duties. It is evident from the results that there is lack of effective communication stakeholders who are dealing with inappropriate behaviour in the South African Police Service with other structures like the Independent Complaints Directorate. In step two the psycho-educational programme was developed. Firstly a conceptual framework was derived from the result of step one. The conceptual framework served as framework of reference for the description of a psycho-educational programme. In step three the programme was implemented and in step four the programme was evaluated. In conclusion, it is evident that aggression really exists in the workplace and officials are affected by such aggression. The recommendations of dealing with aggressive behaviour exhibited by police officials towards the community was done in line with the situational analysis after the conclusion drawn from the findings and were described in a psycho-educational perspective.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:9416
Date15 August 2012
CreatorsMahapa, Lesiba Alex
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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