Citation

Franklin CA, Garza AD, Goodson A, Bouffard LA. Crime Delinq. 2020; 66(8): 1055-1086.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0011128719845148

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Police perceptions of a victim's self-presentation style can have an impact on secondary victimization, case processing, and public safety. Trauma survivors may present to police with flat or restricted affect, emotional numbing, and disjointed recollections. Often, police personnel have misperceived manifestations of trauma as indicators of reliability and credibility. Using a trend design, this study employed a sample of 979 police from one of the five largest U.S. cities to examine the relation between trauma-informed training and endorsement of trauma misperceptions. Multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were estimated and revealed mean adherence to trauma misperceptions was significantly lower among participants who had completed training, controlling for demographic, occupational, and attitudinal variables. Implications and future research are discussed.

Language: en

Keywords

domestic violence; police perceptions; sexual assault; trauma-informed training; trend design