About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

21 Legal & Criminological Psych. 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/legadclpy21 and id is 1 raw text is: The British Legal and Criminological Psychology (2016), 21, 1-14 Psychological Society © 2014 The British Psychological Society www.wileyonlinelibrary.com Police officer perceptions of harassment in England and Scotland Lorraine Sheridan'*, Adrian J. Scott2 and Keri Nixon3 'School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Australia 2Sellenger Centre, School of Law and Justice, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia 3Research Institute for Health and Social Change, Department of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK Purpose. Research has demonstrated that certain relational biases exist within perceptions of stalking. One such bias concerns the perception that ex-partner stalkers are less dangerous than those who target strangers or acquaintances despite applied research suggesting the opposite. Method. In all, 135 police officers in England (where stalking has been outlawed since 1997) and 127 police officers in Scotland (where stalking has been outlawed since 2010) responded to vignettes describing a stalking scenario in which the perpetrator and victim were portrayed as strangers, acquaintances, or ex-partners. Results. Although typical relational biases existed in both samples, Scottish police officers were less susceptible to these biases than English police officers. Victim responsibility mediated the relation between prior relationship and perceptions of stalking for the English, but not the Scottish, police officers. Conclusions. Future work should examine whether these biases may be found in other areas of the criminal justice system, and how far they are influenced by policy, practice, and training. As is now the case in many Western countries, stalking is recognized in the United Kingdom as a significant social problem. In 1997, the Protection from Harassment Act (PfHA) was introduced to help deal with stalkers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Although 'stalking' was not specifically named in this legislation, the more recent Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Commencement No. 2) Order 2012 includes the creation of two new offences, namely 'stalking' and 'stalking involving fear of violence'. Scotland's first anti-stalking law was introduced in 2010 and named stalking as an offence from the outset, which many campaigners argued was necessary across the whole of the United Kingdom (e.g., National Association of Probation Officers, 2012). This study investigates whether differences exist between English and Scottish police officers' perceptions of whether behaviour: constitutes stalking; necessitates police intervention; would cause the victim alarm, personal distress, or to fear the use of violence; and can be attributed to encouragement on the part of the victim. It also investigates whether the *Correspondence should be addressed to Lorraine Sheridan, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia (email: lorrainepsheridan@gmail.com). DOI:10. 1111 /Icrp.12049

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most