Trauma Resilience Training for Police: Psychophysiological and Performance Effects

The objective of this study is to test the effects of police trauma resilience training on stress and performance during a critical incident police work simulation. Rookie police officers (N = 18) participated in a randomized trial of a 10-week imagery and skills training program versus training as usual. Twelve months later, psychophysiological stress and police work performance were assessed during a live critical incident simulation. Training resulted in significantly less negative mood, less heart rate reactivity, a larger increase in antithrombin, and better police performance compared to controls. Trends for cortisol and self-reported stress also suggested benefits of training. This novel training program is a promising paradigm for improving police well-being, stress resiliency, and optimizing job performance.     

Resilience and disaster risk reduction: reclassifying diversity and national identity in post-earthquake Nepal

This paper discusses disaster resilience in the context of disaster risk reduction. It focuses on how the Nepali state, through disaster risk reduction and resilience strategies, is reinventing the ‘diversity’ question in Nepal. Disaster risk management and disaster risk reduction are being used to create a specific form of national identity that paradoxically both segregates and excludes ethnic and traditional communities through a variety of strategies of paternalism and inclusivity. The emerging state-led use of exploiting and capturing ethnic and indigenous ‘traditional knowledge’ is part of the government’s disaster risk strategy. This is sanctioned by multilateral bodies, which further legitimates subtle practices of exclusion through state-led monitoring. This has wider implications for contested narratives on Nepali democracy and federalism.     

Social contention,authoritarian resilience,and political change

This article takes stock of recent advances in the field of comparative authoritarianism. The four books reviewed shed light on the effects of social activism, claim-making and social protests on authoritarian resilience. Taken as a whole, they intervene in the scholarly debates that examine the rise of collective, often contentious action under authoritarian rule. In so doing they account both for how states tolerate or even encourage collective action and the extent to which, in turn, protests by distinct social groups re-shape the political system. As authoritarian institutions, democratic-looking or otherwise, have received considerable attention of late, this article calls for greater attention to the economic and ideational dimensions of authoritarianism and, more generally, a broader research agenda.     

PTSD Symptoms Experienced and Coping Tactics Used by Crime Scene Investigators in the United States

Few investigations have assessed the prevalence of posttraumatic stress experiences among Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs). We recruited a nationwide sample of 225 CSIs to complete online questionnaires assessing PTSD symptoms, use of specific coping tactics, perceived social support, trait resilience, and demographics. Seven symptoms had been experienced by at least 50% of participants during the previous month, and 9.3% had total checklist scores suggestive of PTSD. A significant regression analysis revealed that higher PTSD scores were associated with drinking alcohol more frequently to deal with stress, admitting more frequently one could not deal with stress and not trying to do so, lower social support, getting angry and letting emotions out more frequently, lower resilience, and finding comfort in one's religious beliefs. Given the proportions of CSIs that experience exposure‐related stress, more should be done to mitigate the prevalence and severity of these symptoms.     

Community resilience: a policy tool for local government?

In many countries, local government has been a prime target of austerity measures. In response, local authorities are exploring a new repertoire of policy approaches in a bid to provide more with less. In England, local authorities have been drawn to community resilience as a pragmatic response to the challenge of deploying shrinking resources to support communities exposed to social and economic disruption. This application of resilience thinking is not without its challenges. It demands a working definition of community resilience that recognises the potential for communities to prove resilient to shocks and disruptions, but avoids blaming them for their predicament. There is also the practical challenge of developing and targeting interventions to promote and protect resilience. This paper sets out to explore these issues and establish the potential utility of community resilience as a policy tool through case study analysis in the city of Sheffield.     

优势视角下纠正大学生盗窃犯罪的对策

近年来,大学生盗窃犯罪在青少年犯罪中占有一定的比例,究其原因,不仅有个人及家庭方面的因素,也有社会不良现象的腐蚀及高校管理方面的疏漏。利用优势视角的理论,采取重新界定、挖掘案主抗逆力,将优势应用于行动的方法,不仅能有效地纠正大学生的盗窃犯罪行为,而且有利于重建大学生积极健康的心理世界。     

An education in homecoming: peace education as the pursuit of ‘appropriate knowledge’

In this paper, we argue that two key trends – an unfolding ecological crisis and a reduction in the amount of (cheap) energy available to society – bring into question both the relevance and the resilience of existing educational systems, requiring us to rethink both the content and the form of education in general, and peace education in particular. Against this background, we consider the role education might play in enabling citizens and societies to adapt peacefully to conditions of energy descent and a less benign ecological system, taking seriously the possibility that there will be fewer resources available for education. Drawing on Wes Jackson’s and Wendell Berry’s concept of an education in ‘homecoming’, and on E.F. Schumacher’s concept of ‘appropriate technology’, we suggest a possible vision of peace education. We propose that such education might be focused around ‘appropriate knowledge’, commitment to place, and an understanding of the needs and characteristics of each local context. We then consider an example of what this might mean in practice, particularly under conditions of increasing resource scarcity: Permaculture education in El Salvador, we suggest, illustrates the characteristics and relevance of an education that aims to foster ‘appropriate knowledge’ within a particular and very challenging context. The paper concludes by considering the wider implications of our argument.     

Working with sex offenders: Best practice in enhancing practitioner resilience

Abstract

The systematic and widespread treatment of sex offenders is a comparatively recent innovation in the human services field. Consequently, research considering the impact of such work on providers and organisations is still in its infancy. The first swathe of international research, published throughout the 1990s, identified a range of deleterious effects for treatment providers, ranging from mild anxiety to severe psychological morbidity. More recent findings indicate a considerably more optimistic psychological future. This paper seeks to provide the reader with an overview of the relevant literature, together with its shortcomings, and introduce the Model of Dynamic Adaptation (MDA), a framework through which variables associated with both positive and negative outcomes may be grouped and managed. It is proposed that understanding and managing the MDA can support both individuals and organisations in achieving their goals in good psychological health, through the development and implementation of informed, evidence-based, best practice strategies.     

Applying the Environment Shaping Methodology: Conceptual and Practical Challenges

Abstract

Repatriation has long been the international community's preferred solution to refugee crises. This article argues that repatriation must be understood not in terms of physical return but as a process of political rapprochement between citizen, community and state. In particular, this work takes account of the need to accommodate community-based political identities. Repatriation should be conceived of as the deliberate remaking of a social compact between not only refugee-citizen and state but also refugee-nation and state. This offers a means for resolving the inherent contradiction between the notion of universal human rights and contemporary political organization which determines meaningful access to these rights on the basis of group or national identities. This is particularly important given the role of group-based conflict in causing mass refugee flight.     

The Impact of Bullying Perpetration and Victimization on Later Violence and Psychological Distress: A Study of Resilience Among a Scottish Youth Cohort

This article examines the impact of bullying between age 13 and 16 years on negative outcomes at age 17 years, taking into account various resilience factors at the individual, family, and community level. Using longitudinal data from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, a prospective cohort study of around 4,300 young people in Scotland, the impact of bullying perpetration on later engagement in violence and the impact of bullying victimization on later psychological distress are modeled. The analysis finds significant resilience factors, which reduce violence and psychological distress in late adolescence; however, even when controlling for such factors, both bullying perpetration and bullying victimization are strongly predictive of later negative outcomes. The findings support policy responses that implement early and effective interventions within schools to both prevent bullying and improve individual resilience to its long-term effects.