RT Article
T1 Better safe than sorry? Police officers’ identification of and responses to vulnerable crime victims
JF Policing and society
VO 34
IS 8
SP 861
OP 876
A1 Raaijmakers, Niels
A2 Bosma, Alice K.
A2 Scholte, Ron H.J.
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1905377975
AB This study addresses police officers’ identification of vulnerable victims and responses to these victims. Using an Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) approach, police officers (n = 51) responded to two scenarios regarding a victim who reported either a property crime or a stalking incident. After hearing each scenario, participants judged whether the victim was vulnerable or not and discussed which they would propose any protection measures. Findings showed that a majority of the participants identified the victim as vulnerable. Participants mainly based their judgements on indicators related to the incident or its consequences. Regardless of their judgement, participants proposed a variety of protection measures. Both this finding and the majority of vulnerability judgements suggest that police officers may act out of the principle of ‘better safe than sorry’.
K1 assessments
K1 Victimisation
K1 Police officers
K1 Vulnerability
DO 10.1080/10439463.2024.2347660