Craig Bennell

Carleton University · Department of Psychology

Recently, there has been an increase in media attention and public interest in the use of de-escalation by police officers; however, concerns have been raised regarding potential risks to officer safety. The literature examining the relationship between officer safety and de-escalation is sparse. Drawing on performance assessments of 122 active-dut...

Research suggests that previously burglarized targets, and targets located near such locations, are at an increased risk of being victimized. However, this elevated risk is only temporary and appears to subside over time. The boost account is one theory that attempts to describe the occurrence of repeat, and near repeat, burglaries. The boost accou...

One use of force option available to officers in some police agencies is the vascular neck restraint (VNR). Using this technique, pressure is applied to the sides of the neck. If properly executed, VNR can result in either voluntary compliance or temporary unconsciousness. Based on a review of records from three police agencies, VNR performed by tr...

Significant concerns have been raised about the use of tactical officers, who are suggested to be predisposed to use force—particularly deadly force—when interacting with the public. Given this, we conducted a systematic review of research that compares the decision-making of officers with tactical experience and those without tactical experience (...

Research has reported inconsistent findings with respect to how female and male police officers use force. This study examined this issue in a Canadian context. Use of force data over 9 years were collected from a large Canadian police agency. The results demonstrated that, overall, female officers used force less frequently than male officers rela...

Based on an analysis of data released through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, Canadian researchers have suggested that Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams are no longer exclusively deployed to resolve high-risk incidents but now frequently respond to routine calls that do not necessitate their involvement. Given concerns about these con...

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are implementing body-worn cameras (BWCs) across the country. This chapter reports on a pilot project designed to evaluate the implementation of these cameras that was conducted in Iqaluit, Nunavut, a remote northern Canadian community. Findings from several surveys – one focusing on community members and th...

Previous research has suggested that tactical officers across North America commonly respond to calls characterized as 'routine,' which has raised significant concerns. However, most of this research relies on de-contextualized data, such as the broad call category of an incident (e.g., domestic), to ascertain the nature of the incidents that recei...

Deciding whether two crimes have been committed by the same offender or different offenders is an important investigative task. Crime linkage researchers commonly use receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to assess the accuracy of linkage decisions. Accuracy metrics derived from ROC analysis—such as the area under the curve (AUC)—offer c...

Background: Law enforcement officers are routinely exposed to hazardous, disturbing events that can impose severe stress and long-term psychological trauma. As a result, police and other public safety personnel (PSP) are at increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress injuries (PTSIs) and disruptions to the autonomic nervous system (ANS). ANS...

Questions surrounding the display of pins and patches by police officers are receiving tremendous attention in Canada. However, no known research has explored how such accessories may impact public perceptions. To inform this discussion, we examined how 524 Canadians perceived an officer wearing various pins and patches. Participants rated eight ph...

Previous surveys have demonstrated that not all police professionals are open to the idea that research can play an important role in policing. To examine how Canadian police professionals view this issue, we conducted a survey of 598 civilian and sworn police professionals from seven Canadian police services. The survey responses allowed us to gau...

BACKGROUND Law enforcement officers are routinely exposed to hazardous, disturbing events that can impose severe stress and long-term potential psychological trauma. As a result, police and other public safety personnel (PSP) are at increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress injuries (PTSI) and disruptions to the autonomic nervous system (AN...

Consistently outlined in juror decision-making research is that seemingly irrelevant variables (e.g., the appearance of defendants or plaintiffs) can impact judicial proceedings. Although police officers frequently appear in courtrooms, limited literature exists that assesses the impact of officer attire in this setting. The current study exposed p...

Systemic changes, such as the deinstitutionalization of mental health care, have increased the likelihood that people with acute mental health symptoms encounter the police. Given this, greater attention is being paid to mental health training for police officers in Canada. The current study presents a preliminary evaluation of SimVoice, a training...

Scholars and practitioners who develop evidence-based crime policy debate on how best to translate criminological knowledge into better criminal justice practices. These debates highlight the counterpoised problems of over-selling the contribution of scientific evidence; or, alternately, overemphasizing the limitations of science. This challenge at...

Some research suggests that video‐recorded police incidents may be subject to a camera perspective bias. This study examined whether the camera angle of a recorded police use of force encounter influenced interpretation of the video. Participants (n = 330) viewed a video‐recorded simulated use of force scenario in one of four camera angle condition...

We conducted a narrative review of existing literature to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) necessary for officers who police in democratic societies to successfully manage potentially volatile police–public interactions. This review revealed 10 such KSAs that are frequently discussed in the literature. These KSAs include: (1) kn...

Under conditions of physiological stress, officers are sometimes required to make split-second life-or-death decisions, where deficits in performance can have tragic outcomes, including serious injury or death and strained police–community relations. The current study assessed the performance of 122 active-duty police officers during a realistic le...

Studies have shown that it is possible to link serial crimes in an accurate fashion based on the statistical analysis of crime scene information. Logistic regression (LR) is one of the most common statistical methods in use and yields relatively accurate linking decisions. However, some research suggests there may be added value in using classifica...

Background Effective shooting performance relies heavily on sufficient grip strength. However, some standard issue pistols used by police services may have a trigger weight that causes problems for officers with insufficient grip strength, including female officers. The current study aimed to replicate previous findings, which show that grip streng...

Concerns surrounding the use of force by police officers appear to be growing, fuelled by perceptions that the police use force too frequently, research showing that force is applied disproportionately to members of certain groups, and the view held by some that the mechanisms for holding police responsible for unjustified force are inadequate. In...

The origins of this report, and of the Mental Health and Policing Working Group, can be traced to the unique situation Canadians have faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unique circumstances of this global outbreak, which have for many Canadians resulted in serious illness and death, intensified economic uncertainties, altered family an...

This study examined the risk of adverse outcomes during non-fatal encounters with subjects exhibiting features of Excited Delirium Syndrome (ExDS). Data for the study was collected over a five-year period through standardized reporting in a large Canadian law enforcement agency. Consistent with previous research, the presence of six or more of the...

A small body of research suggests that the use of police tactical officers has become normalized in that they now commonly respond to “routine” calls rather than being restricted to high-risk situations. However, this research has tended to rely on crude data (i.e., call type), which fails to account for the context of the calls (e.g., the presence...

The current study aimed to examine the extent to which students were aware of, knowledgeable about, and willing to use services offered by Campus Safety at Carleton University. Surveying students revealed that most were unaware of the majority of services. When students were aware of the services, typically less than half of the students knew how t...

Leading police scholars and practitioners were asked to reflect on the most urgent issues that need to be addressed on the topic of use of force. Four themes emerged from their contributions: use of force and de‐escalation training needs to improve and be evaluated; new ways of conceptualizing use of force encounters and better use of force respons...

To develop a more informed understanding of why tactical officers are used in Canada, we interviewed patrol and tactical officers from three Canadian police services (Jenkins et al., 2020). Interviewees indicated that tactical officers tend to be used on calls that go beyond the capabilities of patrol officers, including high-risk calls and calls u...

The current study examines the impact of a recently implemented community-based Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST) in a small Canadian police service. COAST pairs a police officer from the South Simcoe Police Service in Ontario, Canada with a crisis response worker from either the Canadian Mental Health Association or York Support Services Ne...

It is important to understand how uniforms influence public perceptions of the police. The current study utilized a randomized design in which undergraduate students at a Canadian university were exposed to a series of photographs of officers wearing different uniform configurations (i.e., special duty vs. traditional uniform, dark vs. light shirt,...

People are known to offload memory processing tasks to devices, such as cameras. We examined whether body-worn cameras (BWCs) are used in this way by police officers. Fifty officers responded to a simulated domestic dispute that resulted in lethal force. Half the sample was provided a BWC and told their footage would be available to assist with pos...

Research suggests that certain characteristics of police uniforms and equipment influence how the public perceives police officers. The current study expanded on this research by examining how various features related to police militarism (e.g., weaponry) are perceived by the public. Approximately 2000 community members from across Canada were show...

Given their potential to reach a large audience, online recruitment videos are likely a useful way for police services to recruit applicants. To increase the likelihood of people applying, these videos should focus on issues potential employees consider when making career decisions. A literature review revealed six job factors that people consider...

In order to optimize public and officer safety, law enforcement training needs to adequately prepare officers for the complex tasks they will experience in the field. The incorporation of carefully-designed scenario-based training (SBT) into pre- and in-service training is essential for the development of effective decision making during dynamic, p...

It is startling to read how few sexual offenses are reported in a year; even more shocking to see how few reports lead to an arrest. Research on effective responses to sexual offenses is much needed and ongoing. This edited book presents the current state of research on investigative techniques used in sex crime investigations, and the operational...

Purpose A narrative review of existing research literature was conducted to identify practices that are likely to improve the quality of de-escalation and use-of-force training for police officers. Design/methodology/approach Previous reviews of de-escalation and use-of-force training literature were examined to identify promising training practic...

Purpose There has been an increasing emphasis on developing officers who can effectively make decisions in dynamic and stressful environments to manage volatile situations. The aim of this paper is to guide those seeking to optimize the limited resources dedicated to police training. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on research related to stres...

In order to better understand the use of tactical police resources in Canada we interviewed patrol and tactical officers (N = 28) from three Canadian police services. A thematic analysis indicated that tactical officers are primarily responding to calls beyond the capabilities of patrol to resolve optimally which included high-risk calls as denoted...

Law enforcement officers in the USA have one of the highest lethal force rates in the world. A shortcoming of previous research on the use of force is that officer-subject encounters are observed as static events, and not a complex escalation of behaviours. Behaviour sequence analysis can identify common pathways that show chains of behaviours occu...

This literature review assessed research related to injuries and deaths proximate to oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray deployment. Our review of 22 relevant documents suggests that OC spray is often effective and is typically associated with decreased odds of both subject and “deployer” injury. When OC-associated injuries do occur, they consistently ap...

The purpose of the present studies was to examine how officer characteristics influenced mock jurors’ judgments in a police use of force case. In study 1 (N = 356), we examined officer race, suspect race, and weapon type (gun vs. taser vs. assault gloves), and in study 2 (N = 352) we examined officer gender, weapon type, and whether the officer was...

The current paper reviews existing literature that relates to how body worn cameras might influence an officer’s memory of their interactions with the public, namely those that involve the use of force. Notably, most of this research does not come from the policing field but focuses on the impact of camera technology in other settings. Much of the...

Policing is a highly stressful and dangerous profession that involves a complex set of environmental, psychosocial, and health risks. The current study examined autonomic stress responses experienced by 64 police officers, during general duty calls for service (CFS) and interactions with the public. Advancing previous research, this study utilized...

For years, scholars and law enforcement agencies have been interested in examining the public’s perceptions of police legitimacy. However, previous studies have operationalized “police legitimacy” in a wide variety of ways. In an attempt to standardize this construct, Tankebe, Reisig, and Wang (2016) recently developed and validated the Police Legi...

Research suggests that certain individuals exhibit vulnerability through their gait, and that observers select such individuals as those most likely to experience victimization. It is currently assumed that the vulnerable gait pattern is an expression of one’s submissiveness. To isolate gait movement, Study 1 utilized kinematic point-light display...

Depuis quelques années, et cela n’est pas étranger au désir des corps policiers d’être de plus en plus proactifs (plutôt que traditionnellement réactif) et d’avoir des pratiques efficaces basées sur des données probantes (evidence-based policing), on assiste à une multiplication des études scientifiques qui visent à apporter support aux corps polic...

Purpose To conduct a test of the principles underpinning crime linkage (behavioural consistency and distinctiveness) with a sample more closely reflecting the volume and nature of sexual crimes with which practitioners work, and to assess whether solved series are characterized by greater behavioural similarity than unsolved series. Method A sampl...

Strategy implementation is the most challenging aspect of strategic management. In the case of police organizations, failure to effectively carry out a strategy results in loss of organizational resources and employee commitment. The present study is an attempt to explore the reasons behind failure of new strategies by drawing upon qualitative surv...

Research conducted in the United States (U.S.) suggests that many police professionals are unaware of, or resistant to, empirical research, and see little value in adopting evidence-based approaches for tackling policing issues. To determine whether similar views are held by Canadian police professionals, 598 police professionals (civilians and off...

Study objective: Police use of force (UoF) encounters include individuals with Excited Delirium Syndrome (ExDS) with some frequency. Situational factors and risks to officer safety associated with these encounters have not been well studied. We examined the likelihood that subjects displaying various concomitant features of ExDS were under the inf...

Previous research has found that targets located in close proximity to previously victimized targets are at an increased risk of also being victimized. However, this elevated risk of near repeat victimization appears to be temporary and subsides over time. Near repeat victimization has rarely been examined using Canadian data, and exact space-time...

Concerns have emerged over the readiness of police agencies to adapt to change. To better understand why this might be the case, we used Lewin’s theory of change and an emic methodology to investigate the internal and external forces for and against change within this sector. Using a qualitative methodology we analysed the data from 103 interviews...

Sexual assault and abuse are among the most heinous crimes that can be committed. However, these crimes are largely underreported worldwide. Despite this, research on the investigation of sexual assault and abuse cases has been slow to emerge and there exists an important gap between the current knowledge on sexual victimization and the police resp...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure of juvenile psychopathy, as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV). Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 2,042 male youths from the USA, Canada, and the UK, the study was a conceptual replication of Bishopp and Hare’s (2008) multidimensional scaling (M...

Some researchers suggest that police professionals see little value in adopting evidence based approaches to tackle policing challenges. To examine this issue, 586 Canadian police professionals were surveyed. We explore responses to one particular question, which caused 353 respondents to reflect on whether they think their agencies enact evidence...

Purpose: This study compared the utility of different statistical methods in differentiating sexual crimes committed by the same person from sexual crimes committed by different persons. Methods: Logistic regression, iterative classification tree (ICT), and Bayesian analysis were applied to a dataset of 3,364 solved, unsolved, serial, and apparent...

Dans cette etude, les auteurs discutent de l’ importance de reprendre et de reproduire des etudes afin de bâtir une base de donnees probantes en recherche policiere. Ces donnees probantes, notentils, sont importantes en ce qui concerne l’ orientation des politiques et des pratiques policieres et, de maniere plus generale, les efforts de securite co...

Study objective: The frequency with which the police encounter non-fatal cases of Excited Delirium Syndrome (ExDS) has not been well studied. To date only a single prospective, epidemiologic study has been completed to determine the prevalence of the features of ExDS in police use of force (UoF) encounters. We examined a cluster of previously publ...

Geographic profiling (GP) is an investigative technique that involves predicting a serial offender’s home location (or some other anchor point) based on where he or she committed a crime. Although the use of GP in police investigations appears to be on the rise, little is known about the procedure and how it is used. To examine these issues, a surv...