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Resource constraints at all levels of the criminal justice system as well as the lack of a widely accepted, validated screening scale have made it difficult to screen adequately for serious mental illnesses (SMI) in offender populations. This study examined the use of the K6 scale, a recently developed and validated screening tool for SMI, using a sample of past-year arrestees. Among the main findings were that 18% of the sample screened positive for SMI. In contrast, commonly used screening questions misidentified a large proportion of arrestees with SMI. Based on these findings, we recommend the use of K6 scale to more accurately identify offenders with SMI.

This article presents the findings of a process evaluation of training for Chicago’s Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS), which is the city’s version of community policing. The study’s approach and instrumentation were adopted from the field of adult education and involved observation and ratings of trainee and trainer behaviors. Two types of training were observed: orientation and skills building. Also, personal interviews were conducted with sergeants, lieutenants, and sworn trainers. The trainers overall were enthusiastic and knowledgeable but did not make adequate techniques to draw participants into the learning process. The article concludes with recommendations on how to implement training for community policing.

We use Canadian data to examine the help‐seeking strategies of women dealing with the consequences of violent victimization. Consideration of the help‐seeking strategies of victimsmay provide insight into other decision‐making processes. The analytic framework integrates research on police reporting and intimate partner violence with the wider help‐seeking literature. This integration allows for an examination of the effect of the victim’s relationship to her offender on decisions to seek help from family, friends, doctors, social service agencies and the police. The research has two objectives. First, we aim to determine whether help‐seeking exists as isolated choices or whether there is a discernable set of help‐seeking strategies used by crime victims. Although many victims do not call the police, they often rely on family, friends, social service and mental health interventions.We find that those victims who report their victimizations to the police also seek support from family and friends. Second, we examine the correlates of these help‐seeking decisions. In doing so, we explore the effects of the offender relationship on decisions to seek help. We explore differences in help‐seeking across attacks by strangers, spousal offenders, dating offenders, and other known offenders. Our findings suggest that women victimized by a spousal offender are more likely than others to use a substantial help‐seeking strategy that includes disclosure to the police, doctors and social service agencies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive literature review of empirical studies that have examined perceptions and attitudes of the police across various racial and ethnic groups. The specific focus aimed to highlight if minorities perceive the police differently compared to their white counterparts.

A systematic literature search of various academic databases (Criminal Justice Abstracts, EBSCO Host, Web of Science, etc.) was conducted. Searches on Google Scholar were also conducted to locate empirical articles that are presently forthcoming in academic journals.

The meta-review identified 92 studies that matched the selection criteria. The majority of the studies focussed on black/white, non-white/white, and black/Hispanic/white comparisons. Overall, individuals who identified themselves as black, non-white, or minority were more likely to hold negative perceptions and attitudes toward the police compared to whites. This finding held regardless of the measures used to operationalize attitudes and various dependent variables surrounding the police. Hispanics tended to have more positive views of the police compared to blacks, yet more negative views than whites.

The present study provided a systematic literature search of studies that were included in two prior reviews (i.e. Decker, 1985; Brown and Benedict, 2002), but also updated the literature based on research that was conducted after 2002. Different exclusion restrictions were also used in the current study compared to earlier research. These restrictions add to the originality/value of the present meta-review in light of current events in the media which have focussed on minority perceptions of the police.

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