Police Survey: Procedures and Prevalence of Intoxicated Witnesses and Victims in Sweden

• Autores: Angelica Hagsand, Daniel Pettersson, Jacqueline R. Evans, Nadja Schreiber Compo
• Localización: The European journal of psychology applied to legal context, ISSN 1889-1861, Vol. 14, Nº. 1, 2022, págs. 21-31
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.5093/ejpalc2022a3
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Encuesta policial: procedimientos y prevalencia en testigos y víctimas intoxicados en Suecia
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen
  • español

    Antecedentes:

    A pesar de que los delitos relacionados con el alcohol son bastante frecuentes, la policía sueca carece en la actualidad de directrices con las que hacer frente a los interrogatorios y entrevistas de víctimas y testigos intoxicados.

    Método:

    Esta encuesta trata de explorar los procedimientos de la policía ante personas intoxicadas y comparar los resultados con estadísticas internacionales. Con el fin de facilitar la comparación internacional la encuesta fue ajustada en contenidos a la investigación previa y adaptada al contexto sueco. Se envió una solicitud con un enlace a la encuesta a todas las regiones policiales de Suecia.

    Resultados:

    Ciento treinta y tres agentes de policía respondieron que era habitual interactuar con testigos/víctimas intoxicados. Algunos departamentos de policía disponían de directrices locales sobre cómo llevar a cabo entrevistas de investigación con personas intoxicadas pero dependía de cada agente formarse un juicio subjetivo sobre la interacción con estos testigos. Los datos evidenciaron que la alta prevalencia de testigos/víctimas intoxicadas en Suecia es similar a la de Australia, EE. UU. y Reino Unido. Parece que la policía sueca desconoce la investigación sobre cuándo y cómo llevar a cabo entrevistas de investigación con testigos y víctimas intoxicados, un grupo vulnerable.

    Conclusiones:

    Se recomienda la colaboración estrecha entre policía e investigadores para crear directrices para la investigación policial con personas intoxicadas.

  • English

    Background:

    Despite the common occurrence of alcohol-related crimes, the Swedish police authority currently lacks national guidelines for dealing with intoxicated victims/witnesses.

    Method:

    A survey was designed to explore the police procedures when encountering intoxicated individuals and to compare the findings with international statistics. To facilitate international comparison, the survey was modeled after previous research and adapted to a Swedish context. A solicitation containing a link to the survey was emailed to all police regions in Sweden.

    Results:

    Police officers (N = 133) indicated that it was common to interact with intoxicated witnesses/victims. Some police departments had local guidelines on how to conduct investigative interviews with intoxicated individuals, but it was mostly up to each officer to make a subjective judgement regarding interactions with this witness group. Data evidenced that the high prevalence rate of intoxicated witnesses/victims in Sweden is similar to rates in Australia, the U.S. and U.K. It appears that the Swedish police are unaware of research concerning when and how to conduct investigative interviews with intoxicated witnesses and victims, a potentially vulnerable group.

    Conclusions:

    A closer collaboration between police and researchers is encouraged in order to develop guidelines for investigations with intoxicated individuals.

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