Perceptions of Hate: Police Awareness Training

• In Event: Improving Law Enforcement through Training

Abstract

Police organisations around the world are recognising the need for specialised training courses that can improve police officer perceptions of Hate Crime (HC) and how it affects victims from minority groups. Training police officers to recognise incidents of HC is arguably a relatively new component in the operational training manuals and syllabus used by many police organisations. To better understand how police training facilitates or constrains the capacity of police officers to appropriately classify and deal with HC, we used an experimental method pre and post training survey to collect data from a population of police officers (N = 1609). Eighteen standardised fictitious victimisation scenarios were constructed with varied incidents of physical and verbal assault to determine perceptions of HC Recognition; HC Handling; HC Attendance; HC Reporting; and HC Arresting. Our research informs how police agencies can develop ‘best practice’ police training for policing targeted crimes, particularly since the majority of officers are able to recognise the factors that facilitate or constrain the capacity of police to appropriately classify and deal with HC. However, our research also shows that HC awareness training does not enhance the capacity of officers to appropriately recognise HC events.

Author

• Toby Miles-Johnson, University of Southampton