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Scant research exists on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among law enforcement officers, hindering health messaging development for officers and, by extension, the communities they serve. This paper's goal was to address this gap by providing the necessary data to better under hesitancy to guide training and policy interventions for officers. The objective was to conduct the first nationally representative survey of officers on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and its correlates. We collected data from February 2021 to March 2022 on officer COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and examined their responses in terms of sociodemographic factors, health status, and job characteristics. We found that 40% of officers were COVID-19 vaccine hesitant. We found that officers with higher education, older officers, officers with more law enforcement experience, officers who received recent health checkups, and commanders (compared to line officers) were less likely to be COVID-19 vaccine hesitant. Critically, officers working in law enforcement agencies that provided masks for COVID-19 protection were less likely to be COVID-19 vaccine hesitant (compared to agencies not providing masks). Ongoing research is needed to understand how evolving attitudes and barriers toward vaccination change over time for officers and to test messaging to better align officers with health guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stemming intimate partner violence among adults demands earlier education and skill-building supportive of healthy youth and young adult dating relationships. The current U.S.-based study examines a spectrum of youth and young adult relationship dynamics (RDs), inclusive of abusive interactions. In a nationally representative cohort of youth aged 10–18 at baseline and one parent or caregiver, survey responses regarding RDs from 618 participants ages 15–23 at wave 5 follow-up were analyzed. Latent class analysis of four positive dynamics, six problematic dynamics, and three scales of adolescent relationship abuse (ARA) were estimated, yielding four latent profiles of dating RDs. Relationships characterized by Unhealthy and Intense RDs both exhibited high probability of ARA but differed from each other in terms of other positive and problematic dynamics. Relationships characterized by Disengaged RDs had lower probability of ARA but elevated probability of awkward communications, negative feelings, social liability, and other challenging dynamics. Several baseline covariates were significantly associated with profiles of dating RDs approximately 5 years later. Younger participants were more likely to subsequently fall in an Intense or Disengaged RDs profile, as were participants with baseline emotional health problems. Further, classification in the Unhealthy RDs profile was less likely for participants reporting a better baseline relationship with their parents and more likely for those exposed to violence in childhood. These findings suggest that in addition to developmental maturity, youth and young adults would benefit from closer investigation and processing of past emotional and relational issues and traumas to foster healthier dating relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence on how hot spot policing affects community members' views of police is very limited and inconclusive. Scholars have thus called for further study of community attitudes in hot spots to guide police in the formulation of hot spot strategies—an issue that is especially salient given recent public controversy surrounding policing, particularly in the United States. Using survey responses collected in 2018 from more than 1,000 community members living or working in more than 100 hot spots across 2 mid-sized cities in the United States, this study examines how community members' perceptions of police activities in hot spots relate to their wider attitudes about police. Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicate that community members in hot spots in both cities exhibit more positive attitudes towards police along several dimensions (e.g., trust and confidence in police, views of police legitimacy, and perceptions of police responsiveness and procedural justice) when they see more frequent patrol and when they see positive police-community interactions. They have more negative views of police when they witness higher levels of investigative and enforcement activity. The findings support hot spot policing strategies that emphasize regular, systematic patrol in hot spots, complemented by positive community engagement efforts and problem-solving work. In contrast, they imply that enhanced enforcement activity in hot spots should be used judiciously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to understand the availability of employee wellness programs within law enforcement agencies (LEAs) across the United States, including physical fitness, resilience/wellness, coping skills, nutrition, mental health treatment, and substance use treatment. The research team investigated whether patterns of LEA wellness programming are identifiable and, if so, what characteristics describe these patterns. We assess using latent class analysis whether there are distinct profiles of agencies with similar patterns offering different types of wellness programs and explore what characteristics distinguish agencies with certain profiles of wellness programming. Data were from a nationally representative sample of 1135 LEAs: 80.1% municipal, 18.6% county and 1.3% other agencies (state-level and Bureau of Indian Affairs LEAs). We found that many agencies (62%) offer no wellness programming. We also found that 23% have comprehensive wellness programming, and that another group of agencies specialize in specific wellness programming. About 14% of the agencies have a high probability of providing resilience coping skill education, mental health and/or substance use treatment services programming. About 1% of the agencies in the United States limit their programming to fitness and nutrition, indicating that fitness and nutrition programs are more likely to be offered in concert with other types of wellness programs. The analyses revealed that agencies offering broad program support are more likely to be large, municipal LEAs located in either the West, Midwest or Northeast (compared with the southern United States), and not experiencing a recent budget cut that impacted wellness programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment continues to be a consistent destructive feature of American life and workplaces, especially in fields for which women are under-represented, such as law enforcement. We use one of the first nationally representative cross-sectional surveys (n = 2,867) of female and male law enforcement officers (LEOs) to assess the prevalence of workplace sexual harassment victimization. Next, we assess how risk factors are related to this harassment through multivariable modeling. We observed large differences between rates of sexual harassment for female compared to male officers on both our measures of non-physical and physical workplace sexual harassment (sexual assault). Our combined measure of non-physical sexual harassment and sexual assault of female officers (71%) was in the range found in prior research and our 41% rate for male officers is also not trivial and requires attention from law enforcement leaders. We tested two competing hypotheses on whether female officers (and possibly some male officers not meeting certain definitions of masculinity) viewed as the most threatening by virtue of their job role in the male-dominated hierarchy will have the highest probability of being a victim of workplace sexual harassment (power-threat model) or whether those viewed as the most vulnerable officers will have the highest probability of sexual harassment victimization (vulnerable-victim model). We found greater support for the vulnerable-victim model. We discuss the implications of these results for guiding training and prevention strategies to address sexual harassment in the law enforcement workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether online sexual harassment (SH) is a unique form of behavior, separate and apart from in-person SH. Data were drawn from the National Survey on Teen Relationships and Intimate Violence (STRiV), a national representative household survey focused on youth interpersonal aggression. A weighted sample of 1,184 youth (12-21 years old) completed a baseline and a follow-up survey 1 year later. Through latent class analysis (LCA), we investigate our first research question of whether there are distinct classes/profiles of mutually exclusive online or in-person SH victims or whether they mostly overlap. Second, does there exist a high-rate group of SH victims who experience most of the SH behaviors both in-person and online? Third, what individual characteristics and behaviors, based on past research, are associated with these identified profiles of SH? LCA did not reveal an in-person-only or online-only SH class. The majority of the sample (78.5%) were represented in a Low/Near Zero SH class; 15.3% in a Sexual Orientation Harassment class suffering sexual orientation–related verbal harassment online and in-person; 4.2% in a Verbal SH class suffering verbal sexual comments, being forced to talk about sex, and being shown sexual pictures in-person and online; and 1.9% in a High SH class featured by a high probability of experiencing all online and in-person forms of SH. Biological sex, attitudes, anger, previous violence exposure, and gender stereotyping each predicted at least one latent class. The findings can help inform the design of more effective interventions to prevent SH, highlighting the overlapping nature of in-person and online SH. Prevention efforts designed to address in-person SH need to also consider online SH and vice versa. Clinicians should also consider the risk factors of SH identified in this study in their work identifying at-risk youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Opioid overdose rates have steadily been increasing in the United States (US) creating what is considered an overdose death crisis. The US has a mixture of public health and punitive policies aimed to address opioid use and the overdose crisis, yet little is known about public opinion relating to opioid use and policy support. Understanding the intersection of public opinion about opioid use disorder (OUD) and policy can be useful for developing interventions to address policy responses to overdose deaths., Methods: A national sample of cross-sectional data from the AmeriSpeak survey conducted from 27 February 2020 through 2 March 2020 was analyzed. Measures included attitudes toward OUD and policy beliefs. Latent class analysis, a person-centered approach, was used to identify groups of individuals endorsing similar stigma and policy beliefs. We then examined the relationship between the identified groups (i.e., classes) and key behavioral and demographic factors., Results: We identified three distinct groups: (1) "High Stigma/High Punitive Policy", (2) "High Stigma/Mixed Public Health and Punitive Policy", and (3) "Low Stigma/High Public Health Policy". People with higher levels of education had reduced odds of being in the "High Stigma/High Punitive Policy" group., Conclusion: Public health policies are most effective in addressing OUD. We suggest targeting interventions toward the "High Stigma/Mixed Public Health and Punitive Policy" group since this group already displays some support for public health policies. Broader interventions, such as eliminating stigmatizing messaging in the media and redacting punitive policies, could reduce OUD stigma among all groups.