A Brief Exploratory Report of Coping Strategies Among Police Recruits During Academy Training.

Few longitudinal studies have investigated the use of coping strategies among police recruits. This study investigated perceived life and work stressors, appraisal, and coping over a seven-month police recruit academy training program. Participants were 81 police recruits who completed the Ways of Coping Questionnaire at three time points approximately three months apart.

Prisoner reentry: a public health or public safety issue for social work practice?

A significant literature identifies the policy, economic, health, and social challenges that confront released prisoners. This literature also describes the public health and public safety risks associated with prisoner reentry, provides recommendations for improving the reentry process, and describes the effectiveness of prison-based programs on recidivism rates. Public health and public safety risks are particularly significant in communities where large numbers of prisoners are released and few evidence-based services exist.

An examination of evidenced-based practice interventions for public emergencies.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics identifies numerous ethical standards that describe the responsibilities for the social work profession to the broader society. Mentioned among these ethical standards is the responsibility for social workers to provide appropriate professional services in response to public emergencies. However, few empirical studies describing effective interventions for public emergencies are available.

An exploratory study assessing relations of demographic characteristics with police recruits' attitudes toward abuse of children and abusive parents.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to assess the relationships of demographic characteristics with attitudes toward abusive parents and abused children in a convenience sample of 183 police recruits. Police academy training staff invited recruits to complete a questionnaire which contained three vignettes and a 36-item questionnaire that depicted child neglect, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and demographic information. Analysis of responses showed that African Americans and Latinos reported more negative attitudes of anger, disgust, sadness, and discomfort toward an abusive parent than the Euro-American group.

Development of a law enforcement stress and coping questionnaire.

This paper describes the construction of a self-report checklist designed to examine experiences of stressful routine occupational events and life events, coping responses and psychological distress among law enforcement officers. The checklist items were derived from existing scales and are designed to examine a cognitive phenomenological model of stress and coping and testing the goodness of fit hypothesis.