The "Gray Zone" of Police Work During Mental Health Encounters: Findings from an Observational Study in Chicago.
The "Gray Zone" of Police Work During Mental Health Encounters: Findings from an Observational Study in Chicago.
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DOI：
10.1177/1098611116658875
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发表时间：
2017-03
期刊：
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Fulambarker AJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wood JD;Watson AC;Fulambarker AJ
虽然改善警察对精神健康危机的反应得到了政策上的极大关注，但警察与精神病患者之间的大多数接触并不涉及重大犯罪或暴力，也没有上升到需要紧急逮捕的程度。在这里，我们报告的警察处理心理健康相关的遭遇在芝加哥的实地观察。调查结果证实，这些遭遇往往发生在“灰色地带”，在那里，手头的问题不需要正式或法律干预，包括逮捕和紧急逮捕。在研究警察如何解决这种情况时，我们观察到警察工作的三个核心特征：（1）接受长期脆弱性的临时解决方案;（2）利用当地知识指导决策;（3）与投诉人和呼叫对象进行和平谈判。研究结果意味着需要推进基于实地的研究，利用系统的社会观察的灰色地带决策内和跨不同的地理和基于地点的背景。支持警察干预的政策影响，包括基于地方的灰色地带资源的增强，也进行了讨论。
Although improving police responses to mental health crises has received significant policy attention, most encounters between police and persons with mental illnesses do not involve major crimes or violence, nor do they rise to the level of requiring emergency apprehension. Here, we report on field observations of police officers handling mental health-related encounters in Chicago. Findings confirm that these encounters often occur in the “gray zone”, where the problems at hand do not call for formal or legalistic interventions including arrest and emergency apprehension. In examining how police resolved such situations, we observed three core features of police work: (1) accepting temporary solutions to chronic vulnerability; (2) using local knowledge to guide decision-making; and (3) negotiating peace with complainants and call subjects. Study findings imply the need to advance field-based studies using systematic social observations of gray zone decision-making within and across distinct geographic and place-based contexts. Policy implications for supporting police interventions, including place-based enhancements of gray zone resources, are also discussed.