Regional differences in police officer misperceptions: a quasi-experimental evaluation of sexual assault investigations training in Kentucky

ABSTRACT

Our study fills an important research gap by investigating the differences in myths and misperceptions about sexual assault survivors among police officers (N = 388) and evaluating the effects of sexual assault investigations training across geographic regions. First, we assessed police officers’ pretraining rape myth acceptance and misperceptions of crime victim reporting behaviours. Second, we used a Solomon four-group quasi-experimental design to assess pretesting effects and evaluate the effect of training and jurisdiction type on officers’ adherence to rape myths and misperceptions of trauma. We used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models to evaluate regional differences in officers’ adherence to myths and misperceptions about survivors, the main effects of training, effects of training when considering jurisdiction type, and the moderating effects of officer jurisdiction type on training outcomes. Results showed lower pretraining scores for urban/suburban officers and significant improvements in post-training scores across geographic regions. In addition, officer jurisdiction type failed to moderate –change—the relationship between training and outcomes. This research improves our understanding of officer misperceptions regarding sexual assault survivors and the impact of specialised sexual assault training in different geographic contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• police perceptions
• sexual assault investigation
• police training
• rural and ubran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author agreement

All authors have seen and approved of the final version of this manuscript.

Notes

1 The survey asked officers to self-select the term that best represented their jurisdiction type from categories including rural, suburban, and urban.

2 Using key demographic information, we examined potential differences between those who completed and those who did not complete the survey. No significant differences were detected for highest education level (F = .00, p = .96), sex (F = .56, p = .46), jurisdiction type (F = 1.07, p = .30), impulsivity (F = 1.00, p = .318), whereas the respondents had significantly less years of police experience (F = 9.62, p < .01), fewer numbers of sexual assault reports in the last year (F = 9.18, p < .01), and more White officers (F = 19.11, p < .001) than the nonrespondents. However, differences found are unlikely to alter the conclusion from this study (see Pickett et al. 2018).

3 Pearson’s r correlations were used as effect sizes. Based on recommendations from prior research (see Gignac and Szodorai 2016), .10 is a small effect, .20 is considered a medium effect, and .30 is considered a large effect.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by Grant No. 2017-AK-BX-009 by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the SMART Office. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice.