Discussion: Contemporary field of police psychology

Police psychology is a wide, still-developing field. Pick a topic pertinent to the contemporary field of police psychology and, in a research paper, analyze its impact on the field from a psychological perspective.

Some possible topic ideas may include:

Psychological issues for K9 handlers

Family support and the role of a police psychologist

Biology and psychology of shift work for first responders

Responding to workplace violence calls

Eyewitness memory

Dealing with officer-involved shootings

Dealing with post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSDs) and first responders

Effectiveness of therapy for officers

Psychology of germ warfare—pre/during/and post incident

Latest research on psychological instruments to assess police officer suitability

Peer counselors

Tasks:

Create a 10-page paper in a Microsoft Word document by addressing the following:

Explain the particular issue or phenomenon from a psychological perspective and its impact on the practice of police psychology. As any issue has multiple perspectives, each of these perspectives should be researched, explained, and related.

Culminate the facts and various perspectives into your own well-thought-out conclusion that directly relates to your thesis presented in the abstract and introduction of the paper.

In order to ensure you address all the requirements of the paper, read the grading criteria carefully to address all the elements

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.