When “Tough” Cops Divert and “Soft” Cops Charge: Trait Attitudes vs. State Situational Narratives in a Focal Concerns Process of Police Decision-Making

Research Question Do police officers’ overall “tough” or “soft” attitudes toward crime and defendants determine how they handle discretionary cases, or does each officer look at the elements in each case to see whether they should act “tough” or “soft” in the given situation? This study tests whether police decisions to divert cases from prosecution into diversionary out-of-court disposals are driven by “trait attitudes”—each officer’s overall “tough” or “soft” attitudes toward defendants, which are stable characteristics of each officer regardless of the situation—versus officers’ “state attitudes”—their narratives about the meaning of specific elements present in each case as they make decisions. Methods Thirty-four officers in a large urban force completed attitudinal surveys and 20 case study vignettes. For each vignette, officers recorded: each relevant element (e.g. criminal history, alcohol involvement); whether each element pushed them toward prosecution or diversion, and why; and whether they would prosecute or divert the case. Officers recorded 2,241 elements across 645 case responses. Using primarily hierarchical logistic regression models, this study tests the impact of trait attitudes versus state narratives on recommended case outcomes. Results Officer decision-making was more influenced by officers’ interpretations of whether elements signaled each defendant was “reformable” or “incorrigible” than by their overall “tough” or “soft” attitudes. Officers often disagreed on how they interpreted the same elements in the same cases, leading to different outcomes. State narratives were strong predictors in most models regardless of officers’ overall attitudes, including predicting diversion. Trait attitudes had little or no impact in most models, except for one subset of officers—officers in the “toughest” quartile of attitudes were more likely to perceive defendants as incorrigible and less likely to divert. Implications This study provides evidence against the theory that officers are primarily driven by their overall attitudes toward defendants, and instead suggests their narratives interpreting case elements are important drivers of differences between officers in decision-making—officers try to pick the "correct" outcome in each case using these narratives. Therefore, research and police departments should explore officers’ interpretation of situational elements, and test mechanisms to provide feedback regarding accuracy of assumptions

Victim Perceptions of Legitimacy of Diversion to a Conditional Out-of-Court Disposal: A Randomized Controlled Trial

This paper describes a randomized controlled trial testing the impact of a conditional out-of-court police disposal on victim satisfaction. The study draws on three previous research findings: that the quality of procedural factors about the way a case is handled (fair and respectful treatment, etc.) influence victim satisfaction more than the outcome of cases; that victims' primary goal for their case is to stop the offender from committing the crime again; and that the way in which a sanction is communicated can change how appropriate the sanction is perceived to be. In this sample of 142 UK crime victims, half of the offenders in these victims' cases were randomly assigned to court as usual, and half to diversion into Turning Point, wherein offenders agreed to complete conditions designed to stop their offending and address victims' needs. Based on a victim survey (70% response rate), Turning Point sample was 45% more satisfied with their cases (72.5% and 50% satisfaction, respectively). Potential explanations and implications are discussed; how out-of-court disposals are communicated may be key. In a third non-randomized but suggestive sample of victims with Turning Point cases without special attention to communication with victims, only 54% of victims were satisfied

Implementing a Burglary Prevention Program with Evidence-Based Tracking: A Case Study

This case study reports an effort to measure the implementation of all elements of a burglary intervention known as 'super cocooning', in a part of the City of Manchester Division of the Greater Manchester Police (Gorton North and South) identified as an area of high repeat and near repeat burglary.College of Policing and Greater Manchester Polic

Tracking the Use of Exclusion Zone Orders in Denmark: Individual and Place-Based Crime Trends Before and After 161 Individual Orders

Abstract: Research Question: To what extent does citizen-reported crime in 500-meter square areas in Denmark, and arrests of individuals legally excluded from those areas for intimidating behavior, decline in the 3-month time periods in which their Exclusion Zone Orders (EZOs) are in effect, compared to the most recent 3-month period prior to the EZO? Data: Individual-level data on 2441 arrests of the 161 offenders who were the subject of all 218 EZOs granted in Denmark from 2009 through 2016 were collected from the Danish National Police Database, as well as place-based reported crime data for the location of each of the busiest 7 (out of 41) of the Exclusion Zones (EZs) and matched control areas. Methods: The two units of analysis are individuals targeted by the EZOs and location of the EZs. A descriptive time-series analysis compared offending before and individuals received EZOs. Standardized mean differences were calculated between seven locations which received a high rate of EZOs and their matched control sites, all distinguishing police-reported crimes from those reported by victims or witnesses. Findings: A moderate decrease in the number of citizen-reported offenses was observed in six out of seven targeted zones when the EZOs were in effect. There was no indication of a displacement effect to offenses outside the EZ. Conclusions: The positive results of this tracking study suggest that more rigorous testing the use of EZOs across Denmark could demonstrate that EZOs can cause reductions in crime and harm

Twelve experiments in restorative justice: the Jerry Lee program of randomized trials of restorative justice conferences

We conducted and measured outcomes from the Jerry Lee Program of 12 randomized trials over two decades in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK), testing an identical method of restorative justice taught by the same trainers to hundreds of police officers and others who delivered it to 2231 offenders and 1179 victims in 1995–2004. The article provides a review of the scientific progress and policy effects of the program, as described in 75 publications and papers arising from it, including previously unpublished results of our ongoing analyses

Hypnosis for treatment of insomnia in school-age children: a retrospective chart review

BACKGROUND: The purposes of this study are to document psychosocial stressors and medical conditions associated with development of insomnia in school-age children and to report use of hypnosis for this condition. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed for 84 children and adolescents with insomnia, excluding those with central or obstructive sleep apnea. All patients were offered and accepted instruction in self-hypnosis for treatment of insomnia, and for other symptoms if it was felt that these were amenable to therapy with hypnosis. Seventy-five patients returned for follow-up after the first hypnosis session. Their mean age was 12 years (range, 7–17). When insomnia did not resolve after the first instruction session, patients were offered the opportunity to use hypnosis to gain insight into the cause. RESULTS: Younger children were more likely to report that the insomnia was related to fears. Two or fewer hypnosis sessions were provided to 68% of the patients. Of the 70 patients reporting a delay in sleep onset of more than 30 minutes, 90% reported a reduction in sleep onset time following hypnosis. Of the 21 patients reporting nighttime awakenings more than once a week, 52% reported resolution of the awakenings and 38% reported improvement. Somatic complaints amenable to hypnosis were reported by 41%, including chest pain, dyspnea, functional abdominal pain, habit cough, headaches, and vocal cord dysfunction. Among these patients, 87% reported improvement or resolution of the somatic complaints following hypnosis. CONCLUSION: Use of hypnosis appears to facilitate efficient therapy for insomnia in school-age children

Twelve experiments in restorative justice: the Jerry Lee program of randomized trials of restorative justice conferences

Objectives: We conducted and measured outcomes from the Jerry Lee Program of 12 randomized trials over two decades in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK), testing an identical method of restorative justice taught by the same trainers to hundreds of police officers and others who delivered it to 2231 offenders and 1179 victims in 1995–2004. The article provides a review of the scientific progress and policy effects of the program, as described in 75 publications and papers arising from it, including previously unpublished results of our ongoing analyses. Methods: After random assignment in four Australian tests diverting criminal or juvenile cases from prosecution to restorative justice conferences (RJCs), and eight UK tests of supplementing criminal or juvenile proceedings with RJCs, we followed intention-to-treat group differences between offenders for up to 18 years, and for victims up to 10 years. Results: We distil and modify prior research reports into 18 updated evidence-based conclusions about the effects of RJCs on both victims and offenders. Initial reductions in repeat offending among offenders assigned to RJCs (compared to controls) were found in 10 of our 12 tests. Nine of the ten successes were for crimes with personal victims who participated in the RJCs, with clear benefits in both short- and long-term measures, including less prevalence of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Moderator effects across and within experiments showed that RJCs work best for the most frequent and serious offenders for repeat offending outcomes, with other clear moderator effects for poly-drug use and offense seriousness. Conclusions: RJ conferences organized and led (most often) by specially-trained police produced substantial short-term, and some long-term, benefits for both crime victims and their offenders, across a range of offense types and stages of the criminal justice processes on two continents, but with important moderator effects. These conclusions are made possible by testing a new kind of justice on a programmatic basis that would allow prospective meta-analysis, rather than doing one experiment at a time. This finding provides evidence that funding agencies could get far more evidence for the same cost from programs of identical, but multiple, RCTs of the identical innovative methods, rather than funding one RCT at a time

Tracking Quality of Police Actions in a Victim Contact Program: A Case Study of Training, Tracking, and Feedback (TTF) in Evidence-Based Policing

In policing, quality of implementation—not just whether a policy is implemented, but how it is implemented—often means the difference between achieving the desired outcomes or not. Police leaders can respond to tracking evidence that shows poor quality of implementation by either improving officer compliance with policy, improving the policy itself, or both. We report a case study of the tracking of implementation quality in a randomized controlled trial of a police policy for contacting victims, in which the first author was a participant-observer. We show that when the results of tracking were fed back to officers to improve compliance, and to managers, who then redesigned policy and training in repeated iterations, the quality of implementation and victim satisfaction improved substantially. This evidence-based, training-tracking-feedback strategy of implementation can be applied more generally to improve the quality of police services and outcomes

Implementing A Burglary Prevention Program With Evidence-Based Tracking: A Case Study

This case study reports an effort to measure the implementation of all elements of a burglary intervention known as 'super cocooning', in a part of the City of Manchester Division of the Greater Manchester Police (Gorton North and South) identified as an area of high repeat and near repeat burglary.College of Policing and Greater Manchester Polic