Models for violence by Turkish police officers toward romantic partners and police partners
| Author | Helen M Hendy,S Hakan Can,Turgay Karagoz |
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1461355715580917 |
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Models for violence by Turkish police
officers toward romantic partners
and police partners
Turgay Karagoz
Turkish National Police, Criminal Justice Program, Penn State University, USA
S Hakan Can
Administration of Justice, Penn State University, USA
Helen M Hendy
Psychology Program, Penn State University, USA
Abstract
Social learning theory suggests that displays of violence in close relationships would be increased for individuals exposed
to family models of violence, especially from parents. Because police officers may regard their departments as a second
‘family,’ violence shown by the ‘father figure’ police supervisor may be a significant model for violence, as recent research
has found for American police officers. The police supervisor might also be expected to be a powerful model for violence
because Turkish police officers serve in a male-dominated workplace in a largely male-dominated society. This study
examined how violence reported by Turkish police officers in their close relationships (toward romantic partners,
toward police partners) was explained by parental models from the ‘home family’ (father-to-mother, mother-to-father,
father-to-participant, mother-to-participant) and from the ‘police family’ (supervisor-to-participant). Study participants
included 233 Turkish police officers (96% male; 66% under 30 years of age; 6.9 mean years of service) who completed
anonymous questionnaires to report violence in each relationship using the six-item subscale of the Revised Conflict
Tactics Scale. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the set of ‘home family’ and ‘police family’ parental models
explained 42% of variance in romantic partner violence and 74% of variance in police partner aggression. Violence
from the police supervisor was the most consistent and significant model, perhaps because the police supervisor was a
new and powerful ‘father figure’ for the relatively young officers of the present study. Violence received from the
mother was also associated with increased risk of police partner violence, perhaps because mothers were the officers’
primary caretakers during childhood, making their style of conflict resolution the most prevalent parental model.
Employee assistance programs to encourage ‘Peace in the Family’ for Turkish police officers may require participation
by police supervisors, who must model non-violent conflict resolution in their departments.
Keywords
Turkish police, police violence, police supervisors, employee assistance programs
Submitted 12 Jan 2015, accepted 14 Mar 2015
Introduction
Because of pas t research showing that Americ an police offi-
cers exposed to high levelsof occupational stressors were at
increased riskfor displaying aggression to romantic partners
Corresponding author:
S Hakan Can, Administration of Justice, Penn State University, Schuylkill
Campus, 200 University Drive, Schuylkill Haven, PA 17972, USA.
Email: shc11@psu.edu
International Journalof
Police Science & Management
2015, Vol. 17(2) 98–103
ªThe Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1461355715580917
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