Background

Positive criminology is a recent concept that takes a positive & optimistic view of deviance & offending by focusing on positive experiences to prevent & discourage deviance, crime & offending. However, individual desistance from crime is only part of the puzzle as it requires the support of different parties within the criminal justice system to be truly successful. Therefore, it is important to examine and understand how law enforcement officers view the concept of positive criminology as it might influence how they carry out their work and the type of support given to criminals and offenders under their charge. Given the importance of positive criminology in preventing and discouraging crime, it is also important to understand potential predictors and moderators among law enforcement for training or recruitment purposes.

Aims

To investigate the concept of positive criminology among law enforcement officers (e.g police officers & prison officers) & examine possible predictors (e.g. personality, attribution style) & moderators (e.g. gender, age, experience).

Method

Participants are law enforcement officers and will complete a battery of questionnaires consisting of attitudes towards criminals, attitudes towards causes of crime, personality, attribution style & demographics.

Planned Analysis 

Planned analysis include descriptive analysis to examine differences in the measures among different demographic profiles. Correlations & regression analysis to examine relationships between potential predictors & positive criminology will also be conducted.

Expected Results 

Expected results include understanding predictors & moderators of the relationship with positive criminology.