Psychology Workshop for Officers of Women’s Police Station: An Experience Report

Abstract

A treatment program for victims of violence has been offered at the Delegacia da Mulher (Women’s Police Station) since March 1998, through a supervised practicum for psychology students. In the interaction with the police, a frequent complaint noticed was that the Police Academy had not given them an adequate training in helping victims of violence. This workshop was, thus, planned by initially interviewing each police officer. Based on the interviews a questionnaire containing 30 true/false assertions about their belief on domestic violence was developed. Workshop goals were threefold: to recognize the right of a human being, and in particular of women, not to suffer aggression, to review and redefine believes that perpetuate violence against women and to analyze the underlying believes about their work at the Police Station. The workshop was held at the University on two consecutive evenings for a total of 8 hours. Results indicated that 4 out of 5 officers presented an increase in the percentage of correct responses to the questionnaire. Future tests with a larger number of participants would help to assess the applicability of the instrument.

Keywords

• police intervention
• domestic violence
• gender violence
• women rights