Nicholas A. Jones

Mental Disorder Symptoms among Public Safety Personnel in Canada

Background: Canadian public safety personnel (PSP; e.g., correctional workers, dispatchers, firefighters, paramedics, police officers) are exposed to potentially traumatic events as a function of their work. Such exposures contribute to the risk of developing clinically significant symptoms related to mental disorders. The current study was designed to provide estimates of mental disorder symptom frequencies and severities for Canadian PSP. Methods: An online survey was made available in English or French from September 2016 to January 2017. The survey assessed current symptoms, and participation was solicited from national PSP agencies and advocacy groups. Estimates were derived using well-validated screening measures. Results: There were 5813 participants (32.5% women) who were grouped into 6 categories (i.e., call center operators/dispatchers, correctional workers, firefighters, municipal/provincial police, paramedics, Royal Canadian Mounted Police). Substantial proportions of participants reported current symptoms consistent with 1 (i.e., 15.1%) or more (i.e., 26.7%) mental disorders based on the screening measures. There were significant differences across PSP categories with respect to proportions screening positive based on each measure. Interpretation: The estimated proportion of PSP reporting current symptom clusters consistent with 1 or more mental disorders appears higher than previously published estimates for the general population; however, direct comparisons are impossible because of methodological differences. The available data suggest that Canadian PSP experience substantial and heterogeneous difficulties with mental health and underscore the need for a rigorous epidemiologic study and category-specific solutions.

Social media and policing: matching the message to the audience

Purpose – This research aimed to explore the characteristics of respondents who accessed a municipal police services webpage or social media (Facebook or Twitter). Perceptions about the usefulness of social media in policing were solicited from the respondents.Design/methodology/approach – Several survey items about social media were included in a study of trust and confidence in policing that was collected in two waves: a random telephone sample of 504 community residents and 314 university students.Findings – One in five respondents had accessed the police services webpage, while 6.9 percent had accessed their Twitter feed and 5.4 percent had viewed their Facebook site. Social media users tended to be younger and better educated while respondents over 65 years of age rarely accessed these tools. Younger respondents reported that computer‐based methods of communication were useful whether they had accessed these services or not. Older non‐users, by contrast, saw little future value in social media. Chi...

Genocide and the Legal Process in Rwanda: From Genocide Amnesty to the New Rule of Law

Prior to the 1994 genocide, Rwandan law provided amnesty for persons who committed serious crimes in the service of the Hutu “Social Revolution” against the Tutsi elites. Murder and other criminal acts undertaken by Hutus who challenged Tutsi political domination were effectively forgiven by amnesty. The law was subsequently repealed during the reconstruction of Rwanda when the judicial system was restructured. This entailed the revitalization of the traditional Gacaca courts due to the enormous number of cases arising from the 1994 massacres. Simultaneously, it spurred constitutional changes to ensure the modernization of the rule of law. This article describes the amnesty law and its role in creating a culture of impunity that led to genocide. It explains how the Gacaca courts arose in the face of massive criminal caseloads and it describes the legal changes that reformed the judiciary and paved the way for constitutional guarantees of legal rights.

Dealing with international crimes in post-war Bosnia: A look through the lens of the affected population

Debates about serious human rights violations and international crimes committed in the past appear during times of political transition. New political elites are confronted with fundamental questions of how to seek truth, establish accountability for offenders, provide reparation to victims, promote reconciliation, deal with trauma and build trust. ‘Transitional’ or ‘post-conflict justice’ is most often managed by elites, national and international, while the views and expectations of the local populations are rarely taken into account. Population-based research can yield deep insights into strategies and mechanisms for dealing with the crimes of the past. This paper reports on the major findings of a study in Bosnia and on the factors that may contribute to trust and reconciliation in the country.

‘Set up to fail?’ An analysis of self-administered indigenous police services in Canada

Abstract In 1992 the First Nations Policing Program (FNPP) was introduced in order for Indigenous peoples in Canada to establish their own self-administered police services. The intent of the FNPP was for Indigenous communities to work toward self-determination and their residents to receive professional and culturally appropriate policing. Like other criminal justice interventions, there was a disconnection between the vision and the actual operation of these agencies, thus over one-third of these fledgling police services disbanded. Even today, many of these First Nations police services are struggling. Police officials report their agencies were intentionally ‘set up to fail’ and this study critiques that proposition. We find these agencies are hamstrung by a lack of funding, suffer from the disadvantage of size, struggle to meet the demands of high crime and community dysfunction, and are delivering a less culturally-appropriate service today than provided when the program was first established years.

Sentencing Circles in Canada and the Gacaca in Rwanda: A Comparative Analysis

This paper provides a theoretically based comparison of sentencing circles practiced by the First Nations Peoples of Canada with the Gacaca courts in Rwanda. It presents a description of each justice-oriented model and compares them engaging a restorative justice theoretical framework. It employs McCold’s typology and Zehr’s continuum in determining the relative ‘‘restorativeness’’ of each model. It then compares the models by exploring some key theoretical elements posited in the purist—maximalist debate in restorative justice and Braithwaite’s theory of responsive regulation. Using the comparisons this paper seeks to contribute to the purist—maximalist debate, providing insight into contentious concepts through their examination in two very different contextual settings. It is posited that Braithwaite’s theory of responsive regulation provides a structure that addresses the concerns noted in the two models as well as provides for the pursuit of holistic restorative practices while accommodating other restorative processes.

Crime, costs, and well being: policing Canadian Aboriginal communities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the community level factors associated with police strength and operational costs in Aboriginal police services from four different geographic zones, including remote communities inaccessible by road[1]. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of variance was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference in per capita policing costs, the officer to resident ratio, an index of community well-being and crime severity in 236 rural and remote Canadian communities. Findings – The authors found that places that were geographically inaccessible or further from urban areas had rates of police-reported crime several times the national average and low levels of community well-being. Consistent with those results, the per capita costs of policing were many times greater than the national average, in part due to higher officer to resident ratios. Research limitations/implications – These results are from rural Canada and might not be genera...

Intimate Partner Violence and Intergenerational Trauma Among Indigenous Women

The establishment of the Indian Residential Schools by the Canadian federal government to assimilate indigenous peoples to European and Christian ideals has had generational repercussions on Canada’s indigenous peoples. Many emotional, physical, and sexual abuses occurred within these schools resulting in significant trauma within this population. In order to shed light on these impacts, indigenous women were interviewed about their experiences with these schools. Thematic network analysis was used to analyze the data, and a number of themes emerged, including identifying the relationships between residential schools, intergenerational trauma, and the normalization of intimate partner violence (IPV) in domestic relationships. The findings add to the existing discourse on IPV in indigenous populations and may be used to inform violence reduction strategies.

A longitudinal assessment of the road to mental readiness training among municipal police

Abstract Police agencies increasingly implement training programs to protect mental health. The Road to Mental Readiness (R2MR) program was designed by the Canadian military to increase mental health resilience. A version of R2MR was adapted for municipal police by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). The current research was designed to assess the R2MR program, as adapted and delivered by the MHCC, in a municipal police sample. Participants were 147 Canadian police agency employees (57% women) who received a single R2MR training session. Participants completed pre- and post-training self-report questionnaires, and follow-ups at 6 and 12 months. The questionnaires assessed mental health symptoms, work engagement, resiliency, mental health knowledge, and stigma. Multilevel modeling analyses assessed for within-participant changes over time. The results were consistent with other single session interventions; specifically, there were no significant changes in mental health symptoms, resilience, or work engagement (p > .05). There were small, but significant (p < .05), reductions in stigma at post-training that may facilitate help-seeking among police; relatedly, in open-ended response fields, participants commonly described the training as helpful for changing attitudes and improving communication. More engagement with the material may produce larger, sustained gains, but more published research is critically needed.

Bridging police and communities through relationship: the importance of a theoretical foundation for restorative policing

ABSTRACT Various models of policing have been studied in the past, but have primarily focused on practice. The current paper applies Llewellyn’s integration of relational theory and restorative justice to the notion of restorative policing. The paper explores how several demographic factors, police organisational support and theoretical constructs associated with relational theory influence the willingness of police officers (n = 296) to engage in practices associated with a restorative approach to policing. The current analytic results evidence relational theory as providing a previously absent and untested theoretical foundation within the discussion of restorative policing.