Publication and Research Trends in Police Psychology: A Review of Five Forensic Psychology Journals

摘要

Police psychology (PP) articles in five forensic psychology journals (Behavioral Sciences and the Law; Criminal Justice and Behavior; Law and Human Behavior; Legal and Criminological Psychology; Psychology, Crime, and Law) were identified in order to examine PP publication and research trends within the field of forensic psychology. A level of interest (LI) score was calculated by dividing the total number of pages dedicated to PP articles by the total number of journal pages. Article characteristics (e.g., research location, topic) were also coded. The overall LI-score across all journals was 0.13, with Legal and Criminological Psychology having the highest LI-score. Results also showed that interest in PP research is growing, particularly in Law and Human Behavior and Criminal Justice and Behavior. PP research has primarily been conducted in the United States, dedicated to operational issues, and experimental in nature. The alignment of these research trends with practice is discussed.