This study suggests that police departments who promote counseling benefit from officer stress reduction. Officers from sixteen municipal police departments (n= 1,114) across the state of Alabama possessed moderate stress, but were influenced significantly by organizational demographics (including counseling opportunities). A majority of officers believed that stress signs were not predictive of police suitability but remained reluctant to share fears and anxieties with fellow colleagues, suggesting that officers feared the stigma associated with the need for stress counseling. Officers working in supportive counseling climates had significantly less stress, a reduced need for counseling, and a greater willingness to use counseling. Officers who engaged in counseling (at least occasionally) also reported more stress, indicating an awareness of their need for counseling. The authors concluded that police departments should consider requiring mandatory and periodic counseling for all officers, a procedural tactic that camouflages counseling need while concurrently treating the source of officer stress.

This study compares perceptions of domestic violence for college students planning to work in law enforcement with students aspiring to careers in social work and non-law-enforcement criminal justice (N = 491). The study involves students attending four public universities across one Southern state who completed a survey (spring of 2006) measuring whether various scenarios were (1) related to domestic violence, and (2) worthy of being reported to law enforcement. Findings indicate that all student groups (law enforcement, non-law-enforcement criminal justice, and social work) tended to identify the various scenarios as domestic violence (and worthy of being reported) regardless of the person's sexual orientation, violence severity, and offender's or victim's gender. However, law enforcement students are less sensitive to domestic violence when compared with social work and non-law enforcement criminal justice students. Findings reveal that (1) graduate students, (2) female students, and (3) White students (compared with African American students in general) attending majority White universities were more likely to identify domestic violence and its worthiness of being reported.The data in this study indicate that criminal justice programs produce graduates who are reasonably sensitive toward the importance of appropriate domestic violence response but could still improve using the techniques employed within social work programs.

Much of the extant literature regarding women in policing focuses on job stress, perceptions of job performance, and inherent difficulties associated with their immersion in a traditionally male-dominated profession. Little attention, however, has been given to perceptions regarding gender and backup preferences among police officers. This study sought to examine the impact of professional and demographic characteristics of municipal police officers in a southern state on preferences for male police officers as backup. Multivariate analysis indicated that gender, partner status, race, and marital status significantly impacted officer preferences for male backup. However, further examination of the interaction effect between gender and partner status revealed a gap in the preferences for officers with no partners. Although officers with no partners reported lower overall preferences for male backup than officers with female or male partners, the disparity of preference between male and female officers with no partners was sizeable.

Although the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) is an acknowledgment of problems posed by forcible sexual assault in prisons and jails, many institutions of confinement at various levels of government continue to struggle with developing compliant policies and procedures. Given this practical reality, the purpose of this article is twofold. First, the authors examined the policies of 28 states plus the Federal Bureau of Prisons ( n = 29) to assess the extent to which they comply with federal law using eight evaluative dimensions. Second, the authors excerpted language from various policy statements for the benefit of those institutions that are still in the process of developing their own such documentation. Emphasis is placed on identifying core dimensions of comprehensive policy statements along with observations and conclusions regarding future implications of prison rape abatement measures.

Literature indicates that drug courts produce lower recidivism rates, increased retention rates, and lower costs than traditional criminal justice case processing. As drug courts approach their second decade, there is a void in the literature regarding factors that influence the success of drug court programs. This work aimed to fill that void by equipping policy makers with meaningful information regarding (a) drug court success and (b) factors that facilitate and challenge the implementation of drug court programs. This study measured the perceptions of drug court judges and administrators in five states to examine factors identified by respondents as key to program success. Federal, state, and local factors (agencies and actors) influenced the success of drug court programs, with state and local factors consistently identified as most supportive and influential. Findings also indicated that perceived success was higher for drug court personnel (a) without graduate and professional degrees (law) and (b) with more experience guiding drug courts.