NCJ Number
99637
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 13 Issue: 6 Dated: (1985) Pages: 561-572
Date Published
1985
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Police student officers' attitudes toward domestic disputes following family-crisis-intervention training are analyzed.
Abstract
A total of 359 student officers from fourteen training classes participated in the study. The most dramatic improvement in attitudes was observed in officers' perceptions of disputants and in their perceptions of domestic disturbance calls. The study also investigated the attitudes of student officers toward organizational policy, training, and community relations. Student officers' attitudes significantly improved in thirty-one of fifty-one items (p less than .05). In general, the changes in attitudes demonstrated that the family-crisis-intervention program did affect the attitudes of student officers in the predicted direction of change. Following training, student officers' were more likely to view domestic disputes as legitimate police business and more likely to believe that their actions could influence families in crisis and that people in crisis both want, and will benefit from, assistance. It is concluded that crisis-intervention training appears to be responsible for the change in officer attitudes and that family-crisis training should be included in the curriculums of police training academies. (Author abstract)