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Better safe than sorry? Police officers’ identification of and responses to vulnerable crime victims

Raaijmakers,Niels
; 
Bosma,Alice
; 
Scholte,R.H.J.
Abstract
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’.
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Date
2024-05-02
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Tilburg University Research Output Collection
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Keywords
vulnerability, police, Police officers, victimization, assessment, Vignette Study
Citation
Raaijmakers, N, Bosma, A & Scholte, R H J 2024, 'Better safe than sorry? Police officers’ identification of and responses to vulnerable crime victims', Policing and Society, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 861-876. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2024.2347660 Better
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14602/103661
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