The personality of the Scottish police officer: The issue of positive and negative affectivity

During the past 20 years, interest has arisen concerning the existence of a specific police personality. Much of the early studies had significant methodological difficulties. The present study aimed to examine the personality traits of ‘Positive and Negative Affectivity’ in a group (n = 699) of serving Scottish police officers. The PANAS scale (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070, 1988) suggested that the sample did not differ from the norm on either of these indices. No differences were found according to age or length of service, which brings into question previous assertions made concerning the role of the police organisation in the development of police personality. However, the complexity of the issue was demonstrated, as differences in affectivity were observed according to gender, marital status, rank, working location and job satisfaction level.     

Shooting behaviour: How working memory and negative emotionality influence police officer shoot decisions

Previous research on police officer shoot decisions has focussed on the influence of situational factors that lead to the shooting error. Focussing instead on the ‘shooter’, the present study examined whether working memory capacity and threat‐related increases in negative emotionality influenced participant shoot decisions in a simulated shooting task. Following a working memory test, 24 police officers viewed a police‐relevant threatening video while physiological indices of arousal and negative affect were obtained and then completed a computerized shoot‐don't shoot task. Results indicated that lower working memory capacity was associated with a greater likelihood of shooting unarmed targets and a failure to shoot armed targets. Moreover, an interaction effect indicated that these associations were only significant for officers who experienced heightened negative emotionality in response to the video. Results suggest that when negatively aroused via threat, limited working memory capacity increases the risk of shooting error. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Procedural injustice,police legitimacy,and officer gender: A vignette‐based test of the invariance thesis

Role congruity theory suggests that gender‐based stereotypes can result in female police officers paying a higher price (i.e., viewed as less legitimate) relative to male officers for mistreating people. The invariance thesis posits that the effect of (un)fair treatment by legal authorities on legal attitudes and beliefs is stable across situations, time, and space. This study tested the invariance thesis by assessing whether the effect of procedural injustice on police legitimacy differed across officer gender. A factorial vignette survey that consisted of two types of citizen‐initiated police encounters was administered to a university‐based sample (N = 525). The results showed that the effect of procedural injustice had a powerful and significant influence on participants' legitimacy perceptions. These effects were consistent regardless of whether the treatment was doled out by a male or a female police officer. The findings provide support for the invariance thesis.     

The Addict as Savior: Heroin,Death, and the Family

The high mortality rate among drug addicts is seen as a suicidal phenomenon with a family basis. The death wish, or instruction for the addict to die, is often quite clearly expressed by the family. He is placed in the role of savior and martyr. His death is seen as a noble, cleansing sacrifice in which he is often a willing participant.     

Predictors of patrol officer interest in cybercrime training and investigation in selected United States police departments

Abstract Cybercrime has created substantial challenges for law enforcement, particularly at the local level. Most scholars and police administrators believe that patrol officers need to become more effective first responders to cybercrime calls. The evidence illustrates, however, that many patrol officers are neither adequately prepared nor strongly interested in taking an active role in addressing cybercrime at the local level. This study, therefore, examined the factors that predicted patrol officer interest in cybercrime training and investigations in two southeastern U.S. cities. The study specifically examined the relationship between demographics, cybercrime exposure, computer training, computer proficiency, Internet and cybercrime perceptions, and views on policing cybercrime with officer interest in cybercrime investigation training and conducting cybercrime investigations in the future. Officer views on policing cybercrime, particularly whether they valued cybercrime investigations and believed that cybercrime would dramatically change policing, along with their computer skills, were the strongest predictors of interest in cybercrime efforts. Officers who had received previous computer training were less interested in additional training and conducting investigations. These findings support the argument that more command and departmental meetings focusing on the value of investigating these types of crime need to be held in order to increase officer interest.     

The subcultural struggle for recognition: Misrecognition of the Goth subculture

The purpose of this article is to examine the struggle of alternative subcultures for recognition from a philosophical perspective. This examination makes use of Honnethian critical theory to examine the philosophical dimensions of the formation of subcultural groups. More specifically, this article makes use of the Goth subculture as a case study in order to shed light on the centrality of the concept of recognition to the activities of subcultures, and to outline the material harms that follow from a lack of recognition.     

The role of police dogs as companions and working partners

Written responses to a questionnaire by 255 officers who used canines in police work were assessed. Almost all officers frequently played with, talked to, petted, and brushed their dogs and believed the dogs benefitted their health and well-being. Officers whose dogs slept indoors, often in the same bedroom, generally said they loved their dogs and they described their dogs as calm rather than active, as indicated by a multiple correspondence analysis. These 96 officers more than the 154 officers whose dogs slept outdoors or in kennels also planned to remain in canine work. Although departments often assumed responsibility for purchasing the dogs, the more experienced officers usually were involved in the final selection of dogs (logistic regression: p < .0001). Compared with 94 officers not involved in selecting their dogs, 106 officers with a specific role in selecting their dogs planned to stay in canine work, as shown by a multiple correspondence analysis. They believed the dogs had saved their lives (p < .01). Over-all, officers reported spending 4.1 hr. on-duty and 2.9 hr. off-duty per week training their dogs, and also played with them for 6.5 hr. per week, assuring a regular pattern of exercise for the officers. Virtually all officers valued canine service and believed the dogs enhanced the department's effectiveness. This study showed that both close companionship with the dog and involvement in selecting the dog were associated both with satisfaction with the dog and with working as a canine officer.     

Crowd action as intergroup process: introducing the police perspective

Traditional crowd theory decontextualizes crowd incidents and explains behaviour entirely in terms of processes internal to the crowd itself. This ignores the fact that such incidents are characteristically intergroup encounters and draws attention away from the role of groups such as the police in the development of events. This paper begins to rectify this omission through an analysis of interviews with 26 Public Order trained police concerning crowds in general and the Poll Tax ‘riot’ of 31 March 1990 in particular. The analysis shows that, despite a perception of crowd composition as heterogeneous, officers perceive crowd dynamics as involving an anti-social minority seeking to exploit the mindlessness of ordinary people in the mass. Consequently, all crowds are seen as potentially dangerous and, in situations of actual conflict, all crowd members are seen as equally dangerous. In addition, police tactics for dealing with disorder make it very difficult to distinguish between individuals or subgroups in the crowd. This convergence of ideological and practical factors leads to the police treating crowds in disorder as an homogeneous whole. It is argued that such action can often play an important role in escalating (if not initiating) collective conflict and is also a key component of social change in crowd contexts. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The homosexual subculture at worship: A participant observation study

The author worked for ten months as Director of Christian Education at a church serving the homophile community of a large metropolitan area. Using the method of participant observation, he concluded that the group is attempting to solve two problems centering on their sexual orientation and their religious needs. Past social conditioning has told the group that they cannot be bothChristian andhomosexual. The group resolves this cognitive dissonance by emphasizing the message that God loves all men, including homosexuals. This religious message is, contrary to expectations, expressed in theologically conservative language.     

Positive response distortion by police officer applicants: association of Paulhus Deception Scales With MMPI-2 and Inwald Personality Inventory Validity Scales

Interpretation of positive response distortion (socially desirable responding) in employment evaluations is an important validity issue. This study of police officer applicants examined the construct validity of the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS)-Moralistic Bias (MB; exaggerated adjustment/agreeableness) and Egoistic Bias (EB; exaggerated power/ status)-in relation to validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; L, K, and S) and Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI; Guardedness). In regression analyses, MB was significantly associated with each validity scale (particularly L and Guardedness), whereas EB was significantly, but weakly, associated with L only. MB is consistent with response distortion as reflected in L ("perfect" adjustment/personality) and Guardedness (denial of shortcomings/faults). EB is a unique form of response distortion that is not reflected in MMPI-2 or IPI validity scales. The relevance of EB to self-assessment among police officer applicants is an important practical concern in personnel selection and an important theoretical question for future response distortion research.     

Relationships between college performance and success as an Army officer

This study investigated the relationships between both academic and nonacademic indices of college success and four indices of occupational success of Army officers. Subjects were 103 U.S. Military Academy graduates from the Class of 1962. Criteria were gathered 6 and 10 years after graduation, and multiple regression results indicated that three of the four criteria were significantly predicted. Results also showed that a leadership rating received the most weight in the equations, and that academic grades can contribute significantly to the prediction of officer success. Grades in physical education and tactics received nonsignificant weights in all but one case.     

Death as the Ultimate Castration

ABSTRACT

Psychoanalysts, beginning with Sigmund Freud, have been scanting, denying, minimizing, and obfuscating the significance of fear of death in their patients and in themselves. Starting with Freud, they have tended to interpret fear of death as a displacement from other sources of anxiety, especially from castration anxiety. Conversely, some psychoanalysts and psychotherapists have denied the presence or significance of castration anxiety in their patients and in themselves. In this communication, the prevalence and significance of each of these forms of terror are examined, individually and as to their connection with one another. Considerable clinical, child observational, and literary evidence is presented that illustrates the significance and meaning of these two sources of terror within the human psyche, as well as the relationship which they have with one another.     

Revisiting the survivor syndrome: The role of leadership in implementing downsizing

This article examines the key strategic and operational aspects of managing downsizing in Barclaycard, a credit card company, and SKF (UK), a bearings manufacturing company. The article begins by briefly reviewing the literature on downsizing; it then presents the data collection methods used in this study. The main areas explored were the strategic reasons for downsizing, the implementation strategies used, and the reactions of middle managers and nonmanagerial staff. In both organizations, downsizing was accompanied by significant redesign and transformation. The underlying theme in Barclaycard was that downsizing was a proactive measure in order to protect future jobs; despite this, the survivors' reactions were negative. SKF (UK) had experienced many rounds of downsizing over the years, yet the reactions of survivors were positive. This article provides possible explanations for these contrasting findings and concludes by suggesting actions that organizations need to take in order to avoid the survivor syndrome.     

Managing deviance: Hustling,homophobia, and the bodybuilding subculture

The subculture of bodybuilding is the backdrop of an analysis of some contradictions inherent in American masculinity. One of the most unusual, but telling of these has to do with “hustling”: the widespread selling of sexual favors by bodybuilders to gay men. In this, one also finds the incongruent presence of homophobia. Hence, homosexual behavior is juxtaposed by anti‐homosexual behavior. This study shows that this irony is necessary if the hustler is to maintain his alleged heterosexual identity. Hypermasculinity and strategies of economic survival in the highly competitive southern California bodybuilding scene are also examined in relation to hustling and more generally to American masculinity. Contradictions in bodybuilding are shown to be more problematic than studies of other street hustlers and prison populations where homosexual behavior is juggled with heterosexual identity.