Special Issue of the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling on Police Decision Making

The current concept of healthcare incites a more personalized treatment of diseases. To this aim, biomarkers are needed to improve decision-making facing chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Prognostic markers provided by real-world (observational) evidence are proposed in this Special Issue entitled “Biomarkers in Chronic Kidney Disease”, with the intention to identify high-risk patients. These markers do not target measurable parameters in patients but clinical endpoints that may be in turn transformed to benefits under the effect of future interventions.

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Focal Concerns and Police Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Trauma Violence & Abuse ◽

10.1177/1524838021991285 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 152483802199128

Author(s):

David S. Lapsey ◽

Bradley A. Campbell ◽

Bryant T. Plumlee

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Decision Making ◽

Sexual Assault ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Campbell Collaboration ◽

Focal Concerns ◽

Police Decision Making ◽

The Impact

Sexual assault and case attrition at the arrest stage are serious problems in the United States. Focal concerns have increasingly been used to explain police decision making in sexual assault cases. Because of the popularity of the focal concerns perspective and potential to inform evidence-based training, a systematic review and meta-analysis are needed to condense the literature. In this study, we assess the overall strength of the relationship between focal concerns variables and police decisions to arrest in cases of sexual assault. Our assessment of the effects of focal concerns variables on arrest decision making in sexual assault cases followed the systematic review protocols provided by the Campbell Collaboration of Systematic Reviews. Specifically, we used the Campbell Collaboration recommendations to search empirical literature and used meta-analysis to evaluate the size, direction, and strength of the impact of focal concerns variables on arrest decisions. Our search strategy detected 14 eligible studies and 79 effect sizes. The meta-analysis found several robust and statistically significant correlates of arrest. In fact, each focal concerns concept produced at least one robust arrest correlate. Overall, focal concerns offers a strong approach for explaining police decisions in sexual assault cases. Although practical concerns and resource constraints produced the strongest arrest correlates, results show the importance of additional case characteristics in officers’ decision to arrest.

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Expanding Foresight Evaluation Capacity

World Futures Review ◽

10.1177/1946756719866271 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 287-291

Author(s):

Annette L. Gardner ◽

Peter Bishop

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Professional Practice ◽

Health Sector ◽

Systematic Evaluation ◽

Special Issue ◽

Scenario Development ◽

Evaluation Capacity ◽

The Subject ◽

Evaluation Approaches

The subject of evaluating foresight work has been around for almost as long as the professional practice itself has, but the field has done little to move closer to a systematic evaluation of its work. This special issue marks the second collection of articles on that project after a special issue of Futures in 2012 (Van Der Duin and Van Der Martin 2012). This issue takes a three-part approach: Part 1: evaluation of foresight in general and evaluation approaches and methods that can support designing an appropriate evaluation; Part 2: evaluation of foresight work in organizations and its impact on long-term thinking and decision-making; and Part 3: evaluation of specific foresight activities—an undergraduate learner foresight experience and a health sector scenario development exercise. The foreword ends with a reflection on the continuing issue of foresight and evaluation.

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