The impact of a trauma-awareness session on police officers’ trauma-informed attitudes in Scotland

Abstract

Purpose: This study reports an evaluation of the impact of a brief trauma-awareness training session on police officers’ trauma-informed attitudes. The training involved screening of the ‘Resilience’ documentary, followed by an open expert panel discussion around ACEs and policing. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were recruited from two Scottish police divisions (N=153): one who had been exposed to the trauma-awareness training (n=62) and a geographically similar division who had not yet been exposed to the training (n=91). Each group were assessed on trauma-informed attitudes towards both victims/witnesses and suspects/perpetrators of an offence. Findings: Officers displayed more positive trauma-informed attitudes towards victims/witnesses than suspects/perpetrators. Female officers, those who had served longer on the force and those who were older were also found to demonstrate more trauma-informed attitudes towards both victims and perpetrators, but officer rank was unrelated to attitudes. Finally, females who had received the trauma-awareness training had significantly higher trauma-informed attitudes towards suspects/perpetrators than males who had received the training, and both males and females who had not. Originality: This is the first study to evaluate the impact of initial trauma-awareness sessions on officers’ trauma-informed attitudes. Findings indicate that the Resilience trauma-awareness training may have limited potential to influence officers’ trauma-informed attitudes, which appear to be more dependent upon officer age, gender and experience. However, female officers may be more susceptible to awareness training than male officers. In order to meaningfully increase trauma-informed attitudes in both female and male officers, a more intensive and tool-based training programme may be required.