NCJ Number
138702
Journal
Police Journal Volume: 65 Issue: 3 Dated: (July-September 1992) Pages: 213- 228
Date Published
1992
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study reports on a relatively new development in Great Britain, a specialist full-time team of police officers and social workers that investigates all forms of child abuse.
Abstract
The Social Work Department/Police Joint Child Protection Unit was established in a coterminous Scottish regional council/police area in January 1989. Operational staff consists of five police officers and five social workers. Interviews were conducted with 10 police and social work operational staff, the police manager, the social work managers, and the former police manager partly responsible for planning and initiating the unit. The interviews were designed to identify the factors that affect cooperation between the police and the social workers. Factors identified reflected differences in police and social workers management structure and style, time scale, training, quality of communication, quality of information sought, and the decisionmaking processes in the two organizations. The degree of openness and honesty in working relationships was suboptimal. Such work led to certain personal changes among the staff. Findings are discussed in the context of literature on police-social work cooperation and occupational psychology. The study concludes that scope exists for improvement in the degree of cooperation through adoption of changes in management style, the provision of more social support for staff, and training in both interagency cooperation and stress. 2 tables and 36 references