Evaluating the Effects of Child Abuse Training on the Attitudes, Knowledge, and Skills of Police Recruits

Abstract

The objective of the current study was to assess the effects of mandatory child abuse training on the knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward abused children and abusive parents among a sample of police recruits. An experimental pretest-posttest design was used in which 81 participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions and 101 to comparison conditions. Participants in the experimental group received the mandatory child abuse training while those in the comparison did not. Analysis of covariance results suggest that recruits participating in the experimental group acquired more knowledge, developed more skills, and felt more caring and sympathetic toward abusive parents than recruits in the comparison group. These results are discussed relative to the provision of joint child abuse training as part of a police-social work collaboration model.

Police Perceptions of Crime Victim Behaviors: A Trend Analysis Exploring Mandatory Training and Knowledge of Sexual and Domestic Violence Survivors’ Trauma Responses

“…The small body of literature has incorporated a range of substantive issues that include evaluation of police training on diversity and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community (Israel et al, 2017; Israel et al, 2016; Israel, Harkness, Delucio, Ledbetter, & Avellar, 2014; Miles-Johnson, 2016), prejudice-motivated crime (Miles-Johnson, Mazerolle, Pickering, & Smith, 2018), human trafficking (Renzetti, Bush, Castellanos, & Hunt, 2015), child abuse (G. T. Patterson, 2004), domestic violence (Oehme, Prost, & Saunders, 2016), and sexual assault (Darwinkel, Powell, & Tidmarsh, 2015; Goodman-Delahunty & Graham, 2011; Lonsway, Welch, & Fitzgerald, 2001; Sleath & Bull, 2012; M.…”

Development of the Older Adult Prescription Drug Assessment Questionnaire for Case Workers

“…Due to an absence of an existing scale and the exploratory nature of the study, items were broadly categorized a priori in to the following heuristic dimensions: (a) knowledge (e.g., “The clients I see are not at risk for prescription drug abuse”), (b) attitudes (e.g., “I’m concerned that I will offend my clients and/or their families if I talk about prescription drug abuse”), and (c) behaviors (e.g., “When assessing for prescription drug abuse I routinely counsel clients and family members on proper medication usage”). Our focus on gathering the perceptions of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors is consistent with other studies examining professionals’ abilities regarding specific aspects of professional practice: community practitioners and the evidence-based practice process (Parrish & Rubin, 2011), police recruits and collaboration with child welfare (Patterson, 2004), and social work students and human trafficking (Nsonwu et al, 2017).…”

A Process Evaluation of Collaborative Planning for Children of Prisoners

“…One study, for example, of collaboration of victim services, prosecutors, legal scholars, and public health professionals highlights the challenges of building and sustaining services for both victims and offenders (Koss, Bachar, Hopkins, & Carlson, 2004). Another study examines the effects of joint child abuse training as part of a police-social work collaboration model and emphasizes the importance of communicating both shared and different knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward abusive parents (Patterson, 2004). A third study identifies barriers to collaboration in response to family violence and child sexual abuse, difficulties of building relationships across agencies, and the need for formal processes for resolving conflict among collaborators (Quinnipiac & Hamden, 2003).…”