Determinants of Decision-making by Law Enforcement Officers
Abstract
The article is devoted to the theoretical and empiricalstudy of the problem of decision-making by lawenforcement officers in modern conditions. The purposeof the article is to present and explain the interactionof external and internal decision-making factorsin the professional activity of law enforcement officers.Methods. Theoretical: analysis and generalizationof the results of applied research in the field of decision-making; empirical: complex author’s methodology;data processing methods: methods of primaryand statistical data processing, correlation analysis.The results. On the basis of the analysisof theoretical and applied research in the field of psychologyof decision-making, the directions for conductinga comprehensive study of various components of the decision-making structure, the impact of stress onthe decision-making process, and typical decision-makingscenarios have been determined. Conductingan empirical research made it possible to single out significantdecision-making factors; correlation analysiswas carried out to establish the relationship betweenthem. The interpretation of the relationship betweenthe variables is presented on the basis of a comparativeanalysis with the results of applied foreign studies.Discussion and conclusions. Multidirectional trendsin decision-making in the activities of law enforcementofficers were revealed: readiness for action is combinedwith a tendency to delay the decision under stress,that requires the development of specially developeddecision-making algorithms. An individual’s ability toreformat decision-making scenarios is directly relatedto the tendency to preserve or destroy established attitudes.Making decisions by one process at the expenseof others, or applying other decision-making scenariosinappropriately under certain circumstances,can lead to reduced performance. At the same time,fear of consequences has an inhibitory effect, whichincreases in conditions of uncertainty and institutionallimitations in the system of law enforcement agencies,that necessitates the study of psychological aspectsof the discretionary behavior of police officers, as wellas the use of special programs for law enforcementofficers at the stage of professional training.
Downloads
References
Akinci, C., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2020). ‘If something doesn’t look right, go find out why’: How intuitive decision making is accomplished in police first-response. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 29(1). 78–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2019.1681402
Ballucci, D., & Lecoq, G. (2023). Expanding mechanisms of governance: Uncertainty and risk in police decision-making strategies in the pursuit of specialized peace bonds. Crime and Delinquenc, 69(4), 798–821. https://doi.org/10.1177/00111287211014155
Brown, S. G., & Daus, C. S. (2023). Decision rife with emotions: Understanding police Decision Making. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-023-09591-5
Briushkova, N. O., Nikoliuk, O. V., Udovytsia, O. F. (2020). Osoblyvosti pryiniattia upravlinskykh rishen u publichnomu upravlinni [Features of acceptance of administrative decisions in a public management]. Derzhavne upravlinnia: udoskonalennia ta rozvytok – State administration: improvement and development, 3. https://doi.org/10.32702/2307-2156-2020.3.39
Feys, Y., Van Thienen, B., Van den Bulck, S., Van Poucke, K., Torreele, R., Van Damme, A., et all (2022). The complexity of police decisions: A collaborative study on police decision-making in Belgium. Policing (Oxford), 16(3), 405–426. https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paac030
Heuvel, С., Alison, L., & Power, N. (2014). Coping withuncertainty: Police strategies for resilient decision-making and action implementation. Cognition Technology and Work, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-012-0241-8
Hobson, Z., Yesberg, J. A., Bradford, B., & Jackson, J. Artificial fairness? trust in algorithmic police decision-making. (2023). Journal of Experimental Criminology, 19(1), 165–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-021-09484-9
Jain, N., Prasad, S., Czеrth, Z., Chodnekar, S. Y., Mohan, S., Savchenko, E., et al. (2022). War psychiatry: identifying and managing the neuropsychiatric consequences of armed conflicts. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 13, 215013192211066. https://doi.org/10.1177/21501319221106625
Kuznetsova, I. O., Karpenko, Yu. V., & Repin, A. O. (2020). Pryiniattia upravlinskykh rishen z udoskonalennia lohistychnoi systemy [Making management decisions on improving the logistics system]. Visnyk sotsialno-ekonomichnykh doslidzhen – Herald of socio-economic research, 2(73), 136–149. https://doi.org/10.33987/vsed.2(73).2020.136-149
Kurapov, A., Danyliuk, I., Loboda, A., Kalaitzaki, A., Kowatsch, T., Klimash, T., & Predko, V. (2023). Six months into the war: a first-wave study of stress, anxiety, and depression among in Ukraine. Frontiers Psychiatry, 14, 1190465. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1190465
Masian, A. (2023). Formuvannia mekhanizmiv stresopodolannia na riznykh etapakh pryiniattia rishen u profesiinii diialnosti politseiskykh [Formation of adaptive stress damper mechanisms at different stages of decision-making in the professional activities of police officers]. Hromadska naukova orhanizatsiia “Vseukrainska Asambleia doktoriv nauk z derzhavnoho upravlinnia”. Hromadska orhanizatsiia “Asotsiatsiia naukovtsiv Ukrainy” u ramkakh roboty Vydavnychoi hrupy “Naukovi perspektyvy” Naukovi perspektyvy – Public Scientific Organization “Ukrainian Assembly of Doctors of Sciences in Public Administration”. Public Organization “Association of Scientists of Ukraine”, within the work of the Publishing Group “Scientific Perspectives”. Scientific Perspectives, 7(37), 637–650. https://doi.org/10.52058/2708-7530-2023-7(37)-636-649
Mattingsdal, J., Espevik, R., Johnsen, B. H., & Hystad, S. (2023). Exploring why police and military commanders do what they do: An empirical analysis of decision-making in hybrid warfare. Armed Forces and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X231160711
Pavlova, I., Graf-Vlachy, L., Petrytsa, P., Wang, S., & Zhang, S. (2022). Early evidence on the mental health of Ukrainian civilian and professional combatants during the Russian invasion. European Psychiatry, 65(79). https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.2335
Penney, G., Launder, D., Cuthbertson, J., & Thompson, M. B. (2022). Threat assessment, sense making, and critical decision-making in police, military, ambulance, and fire services. Cognition, Technology and Work, 24(3), 423–439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10111-022-00694-3
Shortland, N., Thompson, L., & Alison, L. (2020). Police perfection: Examining the effect of trait maximization on police decision-making. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01817
Soltes, V., Kubas J., Velas, A., & Michalk, D. (2021). Occupational safety of municipal police officers: Assessing the vulnerability and riskiness of police officers’ work. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Healt, 18(11), 5605. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115605
Ta, V. P., Lande, B., & Suss, J. (2021). Emotional reactivity and police expertise in use-of-force decision-making. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 36(3), 513–522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-020-09428-5
Authors who publish with scientific journal agree to the following terms:
• All scientific papers may be freely copied and distributed on any medium and in any format, provided that the references to the initial data of the scientific work are indicated.
• Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed Creative Commons Attribution License .
• Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non- exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (institutional repository, your website, monograph), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
