Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Trauma Response Boot Camp within State of Alaska - Informative

With domestic violence rates within the State of Alaska being at an alarmingly high rate currently (Burke, 2022), it is proposed to the Governor’s Office of Alaska to implement a new training innovation for each law enforcement agency in Alaska. This training program will also include additional training for villages to ensure proper policing of villages that do not have regular law enforcement stationed within the villages.

The idea for innovation is to implement new training programs that will put law enforcement officers through a series of events similar to what a victim of sexual assault or domestic violence feels afterward. These will be psychological stressors that will be required for all law enforcement officers that could potentially respond to a scene of domestic violence or sexual assault or any officer that would review the reports of such crimes or make any decisions regarding such crimes. While also increasing basic law enforcement training and knowledge in villages with little to no law enforcement personnel regularly within a reasonable response time. This is important to ensure proper response time to domestic violence and sexual assault-related crimes.

The psychological stressor innovation to mimic domestic violence and sexual assault responses in victims and survivors is essential because even if it is not the case, victims routinely feel as though law enforcement does not take cases of domestic violence or sexual assault seriously enough unless there is enough evidence to prosecute. This will help an investigator or officer to communicate effectively with a victim, earn their trust, and create reasonable motivation within the officer to look into and pursue charges of this nature—regardless of what their caseload is currently. An officer, regardless of caseload, would see the importance of why a domestic violence or sexual assault case is much more sensitive.

The call to action required for this innovation is to be willing to send each agency’s law enforcement officers through psychological boot camp training for domestic violence and sexual assault. Each new officer coming into the agency would be required to attend this boot camp before beginning duties set forth within their job description.

This would be quite a task to roll out, and the costs would add to the already excessive cost to train law enforcement officers, but do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Risks and Benefits

Risks:

1. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – Having officers go through a very intense and gruesome training boot camp could result in officers being more likely to experience PTSD during their careers.

2. Lack of follow through on what they learn or a lack of understanding of domestic violence or sexual assault on victims, including children could lead to increased difficulties, injuries, fear, and more based on the type of call they are responding to (Millar et al, 2021).

3. Triggering of current PTSD for officers who are survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault personally exposing officers to a training boot camp that would replicate the home of a domestic violence situation could have adverse effects on individuals who have already lived through that experience personally.

Benefits:

1. Having officers take part in hands-on training, with real-life scenarios to walk through will result in increased trust in law enforcement when they are overseeing situations such as domestic violence and sexual assault (Klein, 2009).

2. With an increased training program, the law enforcement officers will know how to differentiate, and also will understand the importance of differentiating stalking and abusive behavior (Klein, 2009), to better be able to help victims before the situation becomes out of control.

3. With the training boot camp, officers will be able to fully understand the threat placed on officers when they respond to scenes such as domestic violence or sexual assault (IACP, 2017).

Risk Detail

We understand that law enforcement goes through a lot of training to put them in the positions which they are in, we are all aware of that fact. However, what we are suggesting is not additional training, but different training (Millar et al, 2021). This training boot camp, which would be required each year to be updated on new facts and statistics and used as a refresher course would mitigate multiple risks for law enforcement. One of the risks associated with responding to domestic violence or sexual assault scenes is the potential for an officer to get Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from seeing the visuals that they do during these crimes. If we can more accurately portray the seriousness and the risks associated with these crimes, we could hopefully save lives in the process. It is estimated that approximately 4,000 women die each year due to domestic violence (Domestic Abuse Shelter, 2019). That is approximately 4,000—at a minimum—law enforcement officers each year that have to respond to a deceased body due to domestic violence. If we can reduce the crime rate, by educating law enforcement officers to know the signs to look out for, then we can reduce officer PTSD as well. With every training program, there is always the potential for individuals to not follow through on what they learn or to misinterpret or misunderstand a concept in the training of domestic violence, or sexual assault on victims, including children (Millar et al, 2021). However, these low-performing officers can be weeded out through performance evaluations that target specifically their understanding and experience relating to domestic violence and sexual assault. This will additionally increase their understanding of domestic violence and sexual assault on all victims, including children. A risk associated with implementing a training boot camp that will more seriously focus on domestic violence and sexual assault is for the law enforcement officers who themselves are survivors of these crimes. Having to go through a more detailed training program, could cause these individuals to suffer workplace PTSD due to the triggering effect it could have on their personal history. This would require an additional change of hiring standards, to ensure they are psychologically equipped to manage a training course such as this. However, this training course would be nothing they would not see or handle on the job currently.

With all of the risks and consequences written out about the implementation of such a program, we would now like to discuss the benefits of such a program.

Benefit Detail

When it is shown to the public, the training sessions that the officers go through, or even allowing the public to attend the training sessions as well it will create increased trust in fellow law enforcement (Klein, 2009). There is absolutely no reason why a private citizen could not attend this training. Having private citizens, advocates, attorneys, or other individuals attend this training would create more opportunities for growth, improvement, and accountability. Another benefit would be that law enforcement officers be more likely able to recognize stalking or abusive behavior through the course of routine calls, or traffic stops (Klein, 2009). Additionally, officers would be able to understand the importance of arriving timely, but also the risks associated with arriving without backup, and also what the risks are when handling cases such as domestic violence or sexual assault (IACP, 2017).

This is a lot of information to ponder and think over, but in conclusion, the benefits would outweigh the risks.

This innovation is especially important with the State of Alaska’s domestic violence crime remaining at an alarmingly high rate (Burke, 2022). The risks of PTSD, lack of follow-through on officers’ parts, and triggering past traumas for officers do not exceed the benefits of increased trust in law enforcement, knowledge of importance and awareness of signs of abuse and trauma, and awareness of the importance of responding to these crimes for officers. The benefits far outweigh the risks in these situations.

Citations

Burke, T. 2022. Report on Domestic Violence in Alaska Shows Rates of Abuse Remain ‘Alarmingly High.’ Alaska News Source.

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2022/05/04/report-domestic-violence-alaska-shows-rates-abuse-remain-alarmingly-high/

Domestic Abuse Shelter. 2019. Definition of Domestic Violence. Domestic Abuse Shelter. https://domesticabuseshelter.org/domestic-violence/

IACP. 2017. Four-Part Training Video: The Crime of Domestic Violence. IACP.

https://www.theiacp.org/news/blog-post/iacp-releases-four-part-training-video-the-crime-of-domestic-violence

Klein, A. 2009. Practical Implications of Current Domestic Violence Research: For Law Enforcement, Prosecutors, and Judges. United States Department of Justice.

https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/225722.pdf

Millar, A., Saxton, M., Overlien, C., & Elliffe, R. 2021. Police Officers Do Not Need More Training; But Different Training. Policing Domestic Violence and Abuse Involving Children: A Rapid Review. Journal of Family Violence. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10896-021-00325-x

Rider, C. 2022. Domestic Violence Training Courses. National Sheriffs’ Association.

https://www.sheriffs.org/programs/domestic-violence-crime-victim-services/training