Police officers are repeatedly exposed to critical incidents that can undermine their psychological balance and increase the risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nevertheless, many demonstrate notable resilience and may even experience posttraumatic growth (PTG). This systematic review examines 30 studies that simultaneously assessed coping strategies, and resilience or PTG in police officers, with the aim of understanding how these factors interact in trauma adaptation. The findings indicate that avoidant coping is the most consistent association with greater posttraumatic symptomatology, even when it coexists with adaptive strategies. Active and emotional coping showed heterogeneous effects: in some studies, they were associated with lower distress, whereas in others they predicted higher symptom levels. Among specific strategies, positive reinterpretation, humor, acceptance, and mindfulness-related processes were linked to lower PTSD symptoms and, in several cases, to greater PTG. Perceived social support (from colleagues, supervisors, or significant others) emerged as a key protective factor, although actively support-seeking was not always beneficial. Regarding PTG, its emergence was associated with the severity of the incident, meaning reconstruction, positivity and a sense of purpose. However, PTG did not represent simply the absence of psychological distress. The review highlights the conceptual and methodological heterogeneity across studies and underscores the need for longitudinal research to clarify the directionality among coping, resilience, and PTG.
Police interviews place considerable demands on suspects, who must understand questions, recall events, communicate clearly and assess their legal situation under conditions of stress and uncertainty. For individuals with cognitive disabilities these demands can be especially challenging. Drawing on twelve qualitative interviews with individuals in Norway who had been suspects in criminal investigations and who reported cognitive disabilities, this study examines how participants experienced police questioning through their own accounts of these encounters. The participants described difficulties with communication and understanding, but these challenges did not necessarily bring the interaction to a halt. On the contrary, suspects often continued to cooperate and provide information even when they were unsure about what was happening or how their statements were being understood. In some cases, misunderstandings became difficult to correct once they had entered the investigative process. This evidentiary risk arises when misunderstandings or compliance-based responses enter the investigative record and are treated as more reliable than they are, potentially shaping the course of the criminal case in unintended ways. The study adds empirical knowledge about how communication problems and limited opportunities for correction may develop during questioning, and highlights some of the challenges involved in identifying such difficulties while interviews are taking place. Using reflexive thematic analysis, four themes were identified: understanding and exercising rights, communication breakdowns, pressure and production of unreliable statements, and resignation and loss of corrective capacity.
Witness descriptions of perpetrators sometimes leave out details. However, there are principled reasons to believe that witnesses should tend to mention distinctive physical features (e.g., tattoos, piercings, etc.) and that, therefore, failure to mention those features implies either that the witness did not get a good look or that those features were absent. Participants viewed mugshots from a database of a county jail in the U.S. and provided descriptions. For half of the participants, a follow up question was included asking if the participant noted any distinctive features. Results showed that failure to mention a distinctive feature was diagnostic of the feature’s absence and that this was especially true when a specific probe was asked. Implications for police practice are discussed.
Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) is the primary instrument used to evaluate the quality of a statement. To date, little research has examined whether CBCA is susceptible to cognitive bias, and existing findings are inconsistent. In this paper, we investigate how prior information about a witness, provided to detectives (Study 1, N = 91) and law students (Study 2, N = 231), influences the perceived content quality of a statement using CBCA, the credibility ratings of the statement and of the victim-witness. Participants watched one of two videos of real witness interrogations regarding an alleged sexual assault by a stranger on the street. The stimulus videos featured either a credible or a non-credible statement. In a 2 × 3 between-subjects design, we examined the effects of prior information about the witness (negative, none, or positive) and video condition (credible vs. non-credible). We hypothesized main effects for both independent variables (prior information and video condition). The results show that both investigators and law students were able to significantly differentiate between the two statements using the CBCA criteria and statement credibility ratings. However, prior information had a significant effect on CBCA scores only in the law student sample. In contrast, CBCA ratings in the investigator sample appeared to be robust against prior information. Judgments of victim-witness credibility, however, were influenced by prior information in both samples. The implications of these findings for criminal investigative practice and professional training are discussed.
