Is the police service still a long-term career choice?: Perspectives of new recruits

Purpose: This article is timely due to the current high attrition of officers (National Police Chiefs Council, 2023) and will explore the literature surrounding retention and attrition of officers, the impact of this on trust and confidence, and the need to understand the reasons why officers join the service coupled with their expectations of the police as a long-term career (>10 years).Design/methodology/approach - This research will describe a study using a survey that examined views of 120 new recruits from 3 UK police forces on why they joined the service.Findings - It notes that many still see the police service as a long-term career and indicate little intention of leaving, raising further questions surrounding the reasons for the current high attrition rates. It concludes with where police forces could focus to improve retention, suggesting some reasons for the attrition such as low job satisfaction, poor welfare and organisation culture, and some practical suggestions as to where police forces could focus to improve retention.Research limitations/implications -Albeit this research was sent to a small sample (n = 127) and did not address shift work issues or welfare support, it will serve as a foundational pilot. The research initial findings can inform future studies with more detailed analyses and targeted strategies to enhance officer retention and public trust in the police force.Practical implications: The research aims to provide insights into how recruitment motivations and job satisfaction impact long-term retention.Social implications: This research highlights the significance of examining the reasons for new recruits joining the service, and of implementing retention strategies prioritising stability, officer support, and community engagement to cultivate a trusting relationship between the police and the public.Originality/valueThis study was designed to examine if current new police officers still view the police as a long-term career choice and to identify if their reasons for joining the service have changed with the current political climate of policing in the UK

Improved Gaussian mixture model and Gaussian mixture regression for learning from demonstration based on Gaussian noise scattering

Learning from Demonstration (LfD) is an effectual approach for robots to acquire new skills by implementing intuitive learning through imitating human demonstration. As one of the mainstream learning models for LfD, Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM) and Gaussian mixture regression (GMR) exhibit the advantages of ease of use and robust learning capabilities. To further improve the learning and regression performance of GMM/GMR, in this paper, improved GMM/GMR based on a Gaussian noise scattering strategy is designed. The main contributions of this study include: 1) the Gaussian noise scattering strategy is developed to eliminate the requirement of creating multiple demonstrations and overcome the jitter and sharp-turning defects of the demonstration; 2) based on a new evaluation criterion IBF and the sparrow search algorithm (SSA), GMM/GMR is optimized to achieve the balance of feature retention of the demonstration and the smoothness of the reproduced solution. Experimental results show that with the Gaussian noise scattering strategy, the geometric similarity of the reproduced solution and the demonstration increased for approximately 33.16 %, and the smoothness improved for 19.83 %. The challenges of underfitting and overfitting in GMM/GMR were effectively mitigated after incorporating the evaluation criterion IBF and leveraging SSA. This demonstrates the potential applicability of the improved GMM/GMR in practical industrial scenarios

Desistance habitus:strategically using experience in action

This article builds on the concept of Street and Carceral Habitus and Capital and introduces the forward-thinking concept of Desistance Capital. This takes place through an auto ethnographical embodied experience of navigating both persistent criminality and the revolving door of incarceration. The auto-ethnographical analysis is posited within Bourdieu’s conceptual frameworks of Habitus, Capital, Field, and Doxa. It is argued through lived experience that these constructs provide an innovative approach to explore how legitimacy is obtained as capital within the relational dynamic between those involved in the criminal justice system and professionals who have been exposed to similar lived experiences of crime and punishment. This method of analysis is lacking within the limited criminological investigation that has taken place on peer mentors. The conclusion is that both street and carceral experiences can generate legitimacy and credibility as Desistance Capital by professionals with both street and carceral habitus

Unveiling the predictors and outcomes of TikTok addiction:the moderating role of parasocial relationships

Purpose: Technology addiction is an increasingly severe problem. TikTok has become increasingly popular recently, and its addiction is also a major concern. This study aims to examine the antecedents and outcomes of TikTok addiction. Design/methodology/approach: The authors collect 579 data from Chinese users using an online survey. The authors use structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) to analyze data and test hypotheses. Findings: The results illustrate that perceived enjoyment, social relationship, utilitarian need and social influence positively affect TikTok addiction. Both social anxiety and loneliness have positive effects on TikTok addiction. Moreover, parasocial relationships positively moderate the association between the antecedents of self-determination theory (SDT) (perceived enjoyment, social relationship, utilitarian needs, social influence, social anxiety and loneliness) and TikTok addiction. Meanwhile, TikTok addiction intensifies conflicts, including technology-family conflict, technology-person conflict and technology-work conflict. These conflicts reduce life satisfaction. Practical implications: It offers practical implications for preventing and avoiding TikTok addiction to create a healthy environment. Originality/value: This study is one of the few to provide a complete process of TikTok addiction. It systematically investigates the antecedents and outcomes of TikTok addiction.</p

The place of invisible worlds in children’s spiritual lives

Children have a natural tendency to move effortlessly between different worlds – being present in this material world and drifting in and out of other, less tangible ones. At any moment in the day, they may be absorbed in a book and the next they say they have been talking to their deceased grandparent, then they transform into an astronaut, flying into outer space in rocket. Drifting in and out of worlds, some of which are invisible to adults does not stop when night falls. There, children visit different places in their dreams while they sleep – some real, others mystical, where sometimes they also meet deceased pets and people they have loved. Adults often consider such ventures to be realms of the imagination and yet for children, these invisible spaces are often very real.To fully understand children and their claims of encountering the deceased, it is essential to recognise them as holistic beings. The most common ways of framing children lie in the physical, biological, psychological, social, emotional and cultural. Yet one of the most overlooked aspects is the spiritual: a dimension which is central to finding meaning and purpose in life. This chapter considers what we mean by ‘the spiritual’ and explores how children’s encounters with the deceased in two different states of consciousness – dreaming and waking – can reflect this aspect of children’s being. Suggestions for how adults can support young people and their encounters are offered from a spiritual perspective.<br/

Academic skills in legal education

This entry considers academic legal skills, highlighting that they are focused on how to do things with legal materials and think critically about legal issues. It notes that legal reasoning is at the core of academic skills but that this is also contested. Digital and assessment literacy skills are also important academic skills. The entry notes that there is little consensus and the best way and best time to teach legal skills but that much skills teaching is focused on the first year of legal study whether that takes place in skills modules or as part of substantive law teaching

Followership identity construction:an insight on the non-profit sector

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to understand and examine the relationship between follower self-identity and organisational commitment, with an examination of how trust indirectly influences the relationship between follower self-identities and organisational commitment. Design/methodology/approach - To test the established hypotheses, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilised. The data were obtained from 612 European board members in the non-profit sector from organisations in the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland. Findings - The results show that the relationship between follower identity factor with trust and commitment are positive and significant. Results also show follower identity had an indirect effect on commitment through trust. The presence of a strong level of follower identity can help reinforce the trust between the chief executive and the governors/board members in the organisation. Originality/value - This study is innovative in the sense that it seeks to gain a better understanding of the mediating role of trust between follower identify and commitment in the non-profit sector. <br/