In this study, we investigated the effects of wearing a police uniform and gear on officers’ performance during the Physical Competence Test (PCT) of the Dutch National Police. In a counterbalanced within-subjects design, twenty-seven police officers performed the PCT twice, once wearing sportswear and once wearing a police uniform. The results showed clear indications that wearing a police uniform influenced the performance on the PCT. Participants were on average 14 seconds slower in a police uniform than in sportswear. Furthermore, performing the test in uniform was accompanied by higher RPE-scores and total physiological load. It seems that wearing a police uniform during the test diminishes the discrepancy between physical fitness needed to pass the simulated police tasks in the PCT and the job-specific physical fitness that is required during daily police work. This suggests that wearing a police uniform during the test will increase the representativeness of the testing environment for the work field.
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Background Little is known about the nature and reactions to sexual abuse of children with intellectual disability (ID). The aim was to fill this gap. Method Official reports of sexual abuse of children with ID in state care were examined (N = 128) and compared with children without ID (N = 48). Results Clear signs of penetration or genital touching by male (adolescent) peers or (step/foster) fathers were found in most ID reports. Victims often received residential care and disclosed themselves. Type of perpetrator seemed to affect the nature and reaction to the abuse. Cases of children with and without ID seemed to differ in location and reports to police. Conclusions Screening of (foster)homes seems crucial. Residential facilities should find a balance between independence of children and protection. Care providers should be trained in addressing sexual issues and sexual education, accounting for different types of perpetrators (peers/adults). Uniform reporting guidelines are needed.
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This article is based on ethnographic research over recent years in eight Dutch police teams. It focuses on the othering process in which police officers define ‘crooks’ as the Other and chase, catch and arrest them. Catching crooks is perceived as an assignment as well as a game. Street cops construct detailed subcategories of the crook which influence their daily practices. They select crooks by recognition (the permanent suspects), by abnormalization (out of placeness) and by profiling (regardless of place). In addition to the discussion on ethnic profiling, we argue that profiling is a contextual practice. The contents of the profiles depend on the demographic characteristics of the district in which a police team operates. Interacting mediaframes of both the crook and the police reinforce the mutual caricatures and tense relationships.
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Introduction Physical activity is suggested to be important for low back pain (LBP) but a major problem is the limited validity of the measurement of physical activities, which is usually based on questionnaires. Physical fitness can be viewed as a more objective measurement and our question was how physical activity based on self-reports and objective measured levels of physical fitness were associated with LBP. Materials and methods We analyzed cross-sectional data of 1,723 police employees. Physical activity was assessed by questionnaire (SQUASH) measuring type of activity, intensity, and time spent on these activities. Physical fitness was based on muscular dynamic endurance capacity and peak oxygen uptake (VO2 peak). Severe LBP, interfering with functioning, was defined by pain ratings C4 on a scale of 0–10. Results Higher levels of physical fitness, both muscularand aerobic, were associated with less LBP (OR: 0.54; 95%CI: 0.34–0.86, respectively, 0.59: 95%CI: 0.35–0.99). For self-reported physical activity, both a low and a high level of the total physical activity pattern were associated with an increase of LBP (OR: 1.52; 95%CI: 1.00–2.31, respectively, 1.60; 95%CI: 1.05–2.44). Conclusion These findings suggest that physical activity of an intensity that improves physical fitness may be important in the prevention of LBP
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Climate change is now considered more than just an environmental issue, with far-reaching effects for society at large. While the exact implications of climate change for policing practice are still unknown, over the past two decades criminologists have anticipated that climate change will have a number of effects that will result in compromised safety and security. This article is informed by the outcome of a co-creation workshop with 16 practitioners and scholars of diverse backgrounds based in The Netherlands, who sought to conceptualize and systematize the existing knowledge on how climate change will most likely impact the professional practice of the Dutch (or any other) police. These challenges, with varying degrees of intensity, are observable at three main levels: the societal, organizational, and individual level. These levels cannot be separated neatly in practice but we use them as a structuring device, and to illustrate how dynamics on one level impact the others. This article aims to establish the precepts necessary to consider when exploring the intersection between climate change and policing. We conclude that much still needs to be done to ensure that the implications of climate change and the subject of policing are better aligned, and that climate change is recognized as an immediate challenge experienced on the ground and not treated as a distant, intangible phenomenon with possible future impacts. This starts with creating awareness about the possible ways in which it is already impacting the functioning of policing organizations, as well as their longer-term repercussions.
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Digital surveillance technologies using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as computer vision and facial recognition are becoming cheaper and easier to integrate into governance practices worldwide. Morocco serves as an example of how such technologies are becoming key tools of governance in authoritarian contexts. Based on qualitative fieldwork including semi-structured interviews, observation, and extensive desk reviews, this chapter focusses on the role played by AI-enhanced technology in urban surveillance and the control of migration between the Moroccan–Spanish borders. Two cross-cutting issues emerge: first, while international donors provide funding for urban and border surveillance projects, their role in enforcing transparency mechanisms in their implementation remains limited; second, Morocco’s existing legal framework hinders any kind of public oversight. Video surveillance is treated as the sole prerogative of the security apparatus, and so far public actors have avoided to engage directly with the topic. The lack of institutional oversight and public debate on the matter raise serious concerns on the extent to which the deployment of such technologies affects citizens’ rights. AI-enhanced surveillance is thus an intrinsically transnational challenge in which private interests of economic gain and public interests of national security collide with citizens’ human rights across the Global North/Global South divide.
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Het debat over leefbaarheid wordt steeds vaker gekoppeld aan normen en waarden, aan respect. Daarmee lijkt het terrein van activiteiten waar de overheid zich mee inlaat te groeien, ondanks veelvuldige verwijzing naar eigen verantwoordelijkheid. In deze tekst wordt gekeken hoe de (lokale) overheid omgaat met de discussie over meer respect en welke sociale interventies daarbij ingezet worden. De situatie in Nederland en Vlaanderen wordt beschreven en afgezet tegenover de situatie in UK.
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In the present study, how crime scene investigators are informed before going to a crime scene was investigated. In order to gain more insight in the flow of information from emergency call to crime scene, semi-structured interviews were conducted in three different police regions with six crime scene investigators, six forensic team leaders, and six crime scene investigators.Results indicate that information that crime scene investigators receive before going to a crime scene is usually limited. Most information is provided on-site by the uniformed police officers, forensic medical examiner, and tactical investigation team. This information flow is underexposed, and there are no guidelines about how it is recorded.Even though all parties are provided with limited information, incidents are quickly labelled by emergency call responders and forensic team leaders. The influence of the framing process that occurs as a result is underestimated. Furthermore, emergency call responders and forensic team leaders have different goals in the investigative process and hardly take into account the specific needs of the crime scene investigator. In order to better meet the needs of crime scene investigators, further research about the content of the provided information, as well as at what moment it should be shared, is needed. Also, in order to determine afterward what role information may have played in the decision-making at the crime scene the recording of information should be better safeguarded.
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Although many countries have shown a distinct drop in crime over the last decades, the criminological literature suggests that fear of crime in those countries remained relatively stable. Research on this issue is sparse however, mostly confined to a single country, a few indicators and/or a relatively short timeframe. For this chapter 1,100 data series on fear of crime related items from (supra)national surveys were collected, covering 121 countries and more than 25 years (1989-2015). Using these data, a first prototype for an International Fear of Crime Trend Index was developed. Used on the five UN-regions with the highest average amount of data series per country, the index shows a pronounced fear drop in four of the five regions: all of them in Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries. Explanations for these fear drops are hypothesized and directions for further research are formulated.
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This chapter applies the theory of symbolic interactionism to present the qualitative analysis of 51 sentencing decisions in domestic violence homicide cases processed in Polish courts. It is argued in this chapter that sentencing, like any other human action, is subject to interpretations at the hands of judges, who engage in the construction and meaning-making process of gender at the sentencing stage. The findings demonstrate the diversely-constructed presence of gendered narratives, which vary in terms of their inclusion of the domestic violence terminology and/or the discussion on the fulfilment of socially-prescribed gender roles. The analysis has exposed a powerful interplay between the judges’ perception of the (abusive) relationship, gender roles, and the defendant’s/victim’s acquiescence to them, which in consequence makes women more likely the subject of double standards of conformity. The chapter offers a qualitative outlook on the topic and invites a new theoretical perspective to shift the attention from the impact of gender – to the meaning of gender – in sentencing decisions.
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