Identifying psychological vulnerabilities: Studies on police suspects’ mental health issues and police officers’ views

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic data of the sample of Study 1 (N = 149)

	n	Percentage
Gender
Female	13	8.7
Male	136	91.3
Education
Elementary/Special education	49	32.9
Low/Intermediate level secondary school	83	55.7
High level secondary school/University degree	17	11.4
Nationality
Dutch	136	91.3
Dutch and second nationality	25	16.8
Not the Dutch nationality	13	8.7
Employment status
Unemployed	110	61.8
Employed or Self-Employed	68	38.2

Figure 1. Recruitment procedure of the participants for Study 1.

Table 2. Means and standard deviations of the DASS subscales found in this study, in a clinical population (outpatients of a psychiatric hospital, suffering from a variety of mental health problems), and in a general population (undergraduate students)

	Police suspects^a	Clinical population^b	General population^b
	N = 149	N = 173	N = 289
	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Depression	11.6 (9.4)	13.4 (11.9)	5.7 (7.7)
Anxiety	9.2 (7.4)	11.7 (10.1)	4.2 (5.9)
Stress	12.3 (7.9)	15.7 (10.2)	8.4 (8.0)

^a This study.

^b De Beurs et al. (2001).

Table 3. Means and standard deviations on the SCL-90-R-NL found in this study compared to previous research among Dutch police suspects, Dutch prisoners and the general population

Measure	Dutch police suspects^a	Dutch prisoners^b	Dutch general population^b
	N = 149	N = 257	N = 2394
	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Depression	30.4 (13.7)	31.7 (13.2)	21.6 (7.6)
Somatisation	20.3 (7.1)	20.3 (8.6)	16.7 (5.3)
Hostility	9.3 (3.4)	9.3 (4.0)	7.2 (2.1)
Anxiety	16.6 (6.3)	17.1 (7.7)	12.8 (4.4)
Agoraphobia	8.9 (2.8)	9.1 (3.4)	7.9 (2.3)
Obsessive-Compulsive	16.4 (6.2)	15.3 (5.9)	12.6 (4.3)
Interpersonal sensitivity	29.4 (10.3)	28.7 (11.4)	24.1 (7.6)
Sleeping problems	6.6 (3.0)	7.1 (3.8)	4.5 (2.2)
Psychoneuroticism	151.2 (47.2)	153.1 (52.0)	118.3 (32.4)

^a This study.

^b Arrindell and Ettema (2005) (i.e. the SCL-90-R-NL Manual).

Table 4. Means and standard deviations on the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale found in this study and two previous Dutch studies

	Police suspects this study	General population study Smeets et al. (2009)^a	General population study Hansen et al. (2010)^b
	N = 144	N = 20	N = 30
	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Yield 1	6.42 (3.34)	4.80 (2.76)	4.17 (2.38)
Yield 2	9.42 (3.60)	5.40 (3.59)	4.93 (2.46)
Shift	5.65 (2.87)	3.65 (1.79)	2.33 (1.75)
Total	12.07 (4.44)	8.45 (3.32)	6.47 (2.93)

^a Results of the “no free recall/no delay” group (n = 20, M_age = 19, SD_age = 1.84, 4 male, 16 female); thus, the administration of the GSS of this group was the same as the administration of the GSS in the two other groups mentioned in this table.

^b Results of the group who received standard instructions for answering questions (no demographic data were provided by the authors).

Table 5. Means and standard deviations on the GCS found in this study and in two previous Dutch studies

	N	Mean	SD
Police suspects^a	149	10.1	3.6
General population^b	120	9.5	3.6
University students^c	30	10.0	2.8

^a This study.

^b Smeets (2008).

^c Hansen et al. (2010).

De Beurs, E., van Dyck, R., Marquenie, L. A., Lange, A., & Blonk, R. W. B. (2001). De DASS: Een vragenlijst voor het meten van depressie, angst en stress [The DASS: A questionnaire for measuring depression, anxiety, and stress]. Gedragstherapie, 34, 35–53.

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