Material for a 4-hour lesson, part of the Basic Training Program of Macedonian Police, developed by the Police Development Unit of the OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje.
Aside from traffic enforcement and maintaining public peace and order, the police patrol officer will respond to incidents of criminal violence. Throughout Europe, crime statistics show an increase in all categories of criminal violence, ranging from assaults, sexual crime and in the extreme murder. As more and more citizens become victims of these recorded crimes, fear and insecurity weakens public confidence in the police. To regain and preserve public support and confidence the police must take effective steps to noticeably deter these crimes and reduce victimization. To meet this challenge, progressive police organizations are relying less upon reactive response and more upon proactive detection and deterrence. The patrol officer’s role in criminal detection is anticipating, isolating and interdicting crime. Understanding how to do this effectively is fundamental to a police patrol officer’s responsibility. This lesson will introduce students to a practical approach for reducing the
incidence of violent crime in a given area through the cooperation, support and involvement of the people who reside and work there. In doing so, the lesson will also focus on how the manner of this police response directly impacts upon the most overlooked and affected source of crime statistics; the victim.
Surviving violent crime victims are traumatized both physically and psychologically. Routinely the criminal justice process occurs during the victim’s most problematic and vulnerable stage of recovery. They often becomes overlooked or ignored by the police whose attention is focused elsewhere. The successful prosecution of a crime of violence often hinges on the amount of cooperation and consideration extended to the victim by the police. The reception of the victim by the responding police officers generally sets the tone of the victim’s attitude. This attitude directly affects any willingness to support the efforts of the investigators to bring the assailant to justice. Therefore, police officers must develop an understanding of the importance of conducting themselves with a professional, yet sincere and compassionate approach to crime victims regardless of the circumstances. The victims need police support for effective recovery and the police need victims as their most important witnesses. This lesson will first concentrate on effective professional victim care throughout the crime response process.
Then, in succession, various approaches will be introduced that can help to decrease victimization through proactive police deterrence and detection.
The goal of this lesson is to introduce students to a practical approach for reducing the incidence of violent crime through the cooperation, support and involvement of the people who reside and work there. Students will develop a better understanding of the impact of crime upon victims, and recognize effective approaches for reducing the impact and frequency of victimization including those of domestic violence. Through an examination of existing attitudes, beliefs and traditions common to multi-ethnic societies, students will learn how such factors contribute to these crimes and how these influences can be overcome through effective interactive police and public cooperation.
At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to: