7 - (IOP 2) Police Officer Peer Evaluations of Competency in Mental Health Crisis Involving Black Men with Schizophrenia

Introduction: This study investigated whether race of a hypothetical police officer, mental health, and stigma toward people with schizophrenia relate to police officers’ judgments of competency when the hypothetical officer responds to a mental health crisis involving a Black man with schizophrenia.

Method: Participants included 107 male police officers employed in the U.S. Participants were presented with two vignettes describing a scenario between a hypothetical male police officer and a Black man with schizophrenia. One vignette described a non-violent resolution, whereas the other described a violent resolution resulting in the death of the Black man. The hypothetical police officer was described as White in half the vignettes and Black in the other half. The presentation of each vignette was randomized. Stigma was rated with the Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale, suicidal ideation with the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised, and psychological distress with the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Officer competency was rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (extremely incompetent) to 5 (extremely competent). Analyses and

Results: A two-way mixed ANOVA was conducted with the hypothetical officer’s race as a between-subjects factor and vignette outcome (violent/nonviolent) as a within-subjects factor, with perception of officer’s competency as the dependent variable. As expected, the officer in the violent scenario (M = 2.69, SD = 1.51) was viewed as less competent than the officer in the non-violent scenario (M = 4.58, SD = 0.91), F (1, 211) = 122.52, p < .001, 2 = .37. However, there were no differences in ratings of competency based on the hypothetical officer’s race (Black: M = 3.68, SD = 1.56; White: M = 3.58, SD = 1.57), F (1, 211) = 0.34, p = .560, 2 = .00. Officers who held more stigma toward people with schizophrenia (r = 0.29; p = .003) and who expressed greater suicidal ideation (r = .22; p = 0.028) were more likely to rate the hypothetical officer who used violence as more competent. Officers reporting greater psychological distress were marginally more likely to rate the same hypothetical officers as more competent (r = .18; p = .058).

Discussion: No differences in competency ratings based on the officer’s race in the hypothetical vignette were observed. This is encouraging and suggests that police officers may evaluate the competency of their peers based more on actions than on race. On the other hand, and in line with expectations, police officers who experience poorer mental health themselves (particularly in the form of suicidal ideation) and who hold more stigmatizing views of people with schizophrenia may be more likely to justify the use of force, viewing it as reflecting competent behavior when their fellow officers interact with people with schizophrenia. In this talk, I will discuss how these findings are in line with classic social psychology theories, such as the frustration-aggression hypothesis (Dollard et al. 1939) and other more recent models. Moreover, I will talk about important study implications and directions for future research.