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Study of police officers finds fatigue impacts tactical social interaction

Results lay foundation for addressing impact of shift work-related fatigue on officer-public interaction

Bryan Vila
Bryan Vila

A new study led by a WSU professor found that fatigue associated with shift work influences how officers interact day-to-day during encounters with the public, which can either build or erode trust in the police.

Results show that experienced police patrol officers who worked day shifts were significantly more likely to manage simulated encounters with the public in ways that resulted in full-on cooperation—and significantly less likely to have encounters escalate into violence—when compared with officers working the other three shifts. » More …

Family Drug Treatment Court Helps Families Reunite, Study Finds

van Wormer
Jacqueline van Wormer

Parents who participated in family drug treatment courts to address substance-abuse issues—while their children were in foster care—were reunited with their children at higher rates than parents who did not participate in the courts, according to a study published in the Juvenile & Family Court Journal.

“(Family Drug Treatment Courts, or FDTCs) seek to blend the coercive ability of the dependency court with treatment and other needed services in order to more effectively address substance abuse and addiction in families,” writes Jacqueline van Wormer, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at WSU, and Ming-Li Hsieh, a doctoral student at the school.

“These programs aim to reunify families, if in the best interest of the child.” » More …

Community invited to “Face the Music” Social Justice and Domestic Violence Mural Unveiling

Art is a language common to all that has found its way through generations and across languages, races, ethnicities, religions, cultural norms, and the sheer diversity of the human race. A community, a nation, and even an entire world can be forever changed when artists commit to voicing themselves through creative design, and viewers open themselves to receive that voice. » More …

Spokane County Jail receives an additional $1.75 million from MacArthur Foundation to reduce overcrowding

van Wormer
Jacqueline van Wormer

Spokane County’s efforts to reduce overcrowding and racial disparities at its aging jail have earned an additional investment of $1.75 million from the MacArthur Foundation.

The decision was announced Wednesday afternoon by Jacqueline van Wormer, the county’s criminal justice administrator and an assistant professor of criminal justice and criminology at WSU. » More …

Vice, liberality, change studied in Netherlands trip

Melanie-Angela Neuilly
Melanie-Angela Neuilly

The Netherlands’ well known, relaxed approach to vice has lately tightened up as local governments close or move marijuana coffee shops and brothels, arguing that they breed nuisance and more sinister levels of criminality.

These changes and how they feed into the larger international debate about normalization vs. criminalization of “vice crimes” were some of the topics explored by eight Washington State University criminal justice majors accompanied by professor Melanie-Angela Neuilly on a recent study abroad week in the Netherlands. » More …