External workplace violence towards police officers: A scoping review

Abstract

Existing research on public violence against the police is limited. This scoping review aimed to offer an overview of the characteristics and the findings of existing primary research, identifying methodological and knowledge gaps to inform future research. It followed Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review guidelines, with a protocol established before the review started. Relevant citations were searched and screened based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data of the included publications were charted with a pre-defined template and then synthesized narratively.

The initial de-duplicated electronic searches returned 796 citations. An additional 29 relevant citations were found through hand searching. Overall, 62 publications met the inclusion criteria. Areas covered included characteristics of victimized officers, perpetrators, and situations; impacts on officers and organizations; comparisons with other occupations; socio-political factors; and methodologies used. It was found that police officers face various forms of external workplace violence, including verbal abuse, threats, and physical violence, sometimes fatal. Most victim officers were younger males, with higher levels of victimization involving minor physical violence and verbal threats. Despite some common findings on situational and environmental correlates, there is no definitive profile of individuals who assault police officers or consistent predictors for serious violence. Research mostly used quantitative secondary analyses of organizational and government databases with limited primary research found. Research focused more on the extent and the correlates of external workplace violence than impacts, interventions, or prevention. Increased use of mixed-methods and qualitative research is suggested to better understand the phenomenon and develop appropriate prevention and welfare programs.