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One of the most important contemporary topics in policing is the preparedness that police officers have for interacting with persons that have a mental health concern. This study examined police officers’ perceptions on the effectiveness of their mental health awareness training. An online survey was distributed to Texas (USA) police officers using a convenience sample and 232 officers completed the survey. A multi-nominal logistic regression analysis was used to examine three levels of mental health awareness training they received (state mandated, additional in-service training, and mental health peace officer certification). The results suggest that rural officers do not have the same level of mental health awareness training as officers in urban areas and officers perceive their training beyond the state mandated minimum requirement to be adequate for the demands of the job.

Keywords: critical incident training, mental health, police training, rural policing

Insanity has been a contentious mental disorder defence ever since its initial formulation in England and Wales by virtue of the M’Naghten Rules. According to this standard, the defendant is exculpated if, due to a mental disorder, he did not know the nature and quality of his act, or, he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. Whilst the critiques of this test are vast in nature, one ambiguity has never been fully resolved; does the criterion of whether the accused knew that the criminal act was “wrong” mean legally wrong or morally wrong? Few cases have even discussed the question, and across jurisdictions the courts have failed to reach a consensus on the matter. A general discussion of the critiques of the M’Naghten standard is thus beyond the scope of this paper, which focuses entirely upon the lattermost element of the defence, commonly known as the “wrongness” (or “wrongfulness”) limb. In order to highlight the divergence of judicial opinion, this paper critically examines the differing approaches taken to wrongfulness in English and Australian law.

First, a discussion is undertaken of the position in England and Wales, where “wrong” is restricted to knowledge of illegality. It is demonstrated that this approach is so unusually strict and scientifically ignorant that psychiatrists are typically disregarding it in practice. Next, the approach taken in Australian jurisdictions is analysed, whereby the courts not only interpret “wrong” as morally wrong, but have also addressed the precise nature of an accused’s knowledge. Nonetheless, the moral approach is also subject to criticism. Finally, it is contended that the wrongfulness limb is in dire need of reform throughout both English and Australian law. Instead of focusing upon historical analysis of rules that have their origins in the mid-19th century, an alternative formulation is proposed which much more accurately reflects contemporary understanding of how distorted thought processes truly impact upon the ability of mentally disordered defendants to know right from wrong.

Background: A lack of studies on the criminal careers of Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) users who have been subject to an extrajudicial settlement, compared to CSEM users who have appeared before criminal court. Objective: This study examined differences between two groups of CSEM users according to their criminal careers (i.e. criminal history and recidivism). Methods: Analyses of police records were performed regarding (sexual) offences before and after the index offence. The mean follow-up period was 57 months. Results: Extrajudicial CSEM users commit fewer offences (sexual and non-sexual) in their criminal careers than the comparison group, but experience a sexual offence recidivism more often, in particular a CSEM offence. The recidivism for both groups starts shortly after treatment and supervision by the probation service has ended. Conclusions: The results suggest that the higher incidence of sexual offence recidivism may be the result of ‘over-treatment’ and not enough time of supervision.

Keywords: child, sexual exploitation material, criminal career, recidivism, longitudinal and comparison group.

There is a public health and law enforcement officer occupational safety need to assess the patterns of officer assaults during violent encounters. Using a multi-unit and content analysis method, the contents of 30 research studies and three agency annual reports which examined the circumstances of officer assaults and injuries sustained during the confrontation were assessed. The review identifies and synthesizes the key assault patterns from the research. The review examines the patterns of the circumstances, spatial factors, subject characteristics and types of resistance, types of officer injuries, and common risk patterns associated with officer assaults. The outcomes of the review are useful in informing policies, training strategies, and tactical field practices which can be implemented to mitigate officer assaults.

Keywords: Police officer; assault patterns; injury patterns; subject resistance; occupational safety

This study examines the impact of the opening of a juvenile assessment center to assess and divert youth from further penetration of the juvenile justice system. Particularly, it examines the impact on the number and type of youth placed in pre-trial detention in a local juvenile detention home. Results indicate that youth processed through the local juvenile assessment center were significantly less likely to be placed into detention that youth not processed through the assessment center. Implications of this study and further research is discussed.

Most actuarial tools in criminology have been developed based on male offenders. However, there have been few studies on the nature and extent of crime in the female population. It has been suggested that this gendered difference in the development of robust actuarial tools for the assessment of criminal behaviours is mainly attributable to the fact that tool development requires a large representative sample—it is an undeniable fact that males commit far more offences and pose a greater offending threat than females do. However, applying tools that have been specifically developed for males to female prison populations neglects potential behavioral and situational differences between genders, and may have an impact on the quality of decisions made in day-to-day practice in the criminal justice system. Based on a global sample comprising 61,324 offenders (male offenders = 41,557; female offenders = 19,767) sentenced to custody (n = 7,588) or probation (n = 53,736), this study aims to fill this gap by analyzing all the items in the five sections of the Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI), a tool developed in order to predict criminal recidivism. Thus, this study explores indicators of criminal recidivism in male and female offenders. Our results regarding Section 1 of the LS/CMI are very similar to the results reported in previous studies. Our results for sections 2 to 5 indicate that only a few items are highly correlated to recidivism, and that those items—for example, criminal history and personal problems—are largely redundant with those in Section 1. In addition, the majority of the items in sections 2 to 5 present low levels of endorsement.

Keywords: LS/CMI; Risk assessment; male offenders; female offenders; in custody; on probation.

Amid the ongoing debate concerning gun laws in America, the question of whether concealed carry should be allowed on college campuses appears. Currently in the United States, the Biden Administration faces a spate of mass shooter killings that span across the country. There seems to be no end in the near future to these types of mass murders. Indeed, this topic has been discussed for several years now, with incidents like the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, in which a student enrolled at Virginia Tech killed and wounded a total of 49 people with two semi-automatic pistols. On one hand, people believe that arming more citizens will create a type of checks and balances between civilians regarding safety, meaning that if someone who intends to do harm has a gun there will be another individual who is armed to stop any violence from occurring. Conversely, others believe that arming more people will only lead to an increase in violence rather than leading to safer public environments. To answer the question of if we should start allowing concealed carry on campus, it is pertinent to gauge how college students, faculty, and staff feel about the possibility of concealed carry becoming non-restricted to public citizens on campus.