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10 - Practitioners’ Inclination to Rely on Experience

What Does This Mean for Evidence-Based Policing?

from Part IV - Challenges to the Implementation of Evidence-Based Policing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

By
Tal Jonathan-Zamir  and
David Weisburd
Edited by
David Weisburd ,
Tal Jonathan-Zamir ,
Gali Perry  and
Badi Hasisi
David Weisburd
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and George Mason University, Virginia
Tal Jonathan-Zamir
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Gali Perry
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Badi Hasisi
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Summary

For the last two decades, proponents of evidence-based policing (EBP) have worked diligently to convince police of the benefits of science and make research evidence clear, accessible, and relevant to real-world policing. In doing so, they were aware of a major obstacle: police officers tend to rely on experience, not science, when making decisions. However, policing scholars have paid little attention to the generality of this phenomenon or to the psychological mechanisms at its root. The implications for the future of EBP have also rarely been discussed. In this chapter we review the psychological processes behind practitioners’ preference for experience over science as the basis for decision-making, and empirical studies demonstrating this tendency in policing. Given this literature, we argue that attempts to rationally convince police to abandon their intuitive reliance on experience are unlikely to be successful. We speculate on the implications for the future implementation of EBP, and raise two main suggestions: 1) incorporate scientifically sound practices into police officers’ experience, particularly through training; 2) treat both science and experience as necessary components in successful policing, and begin investigating what their exact roles should be.

Keywords

Evidence-Based Policing MatrixPolice officers: decision-making, intuitionprofessional/personal experiencetrainingReceptivity to research studiesScience-experience paradoxThinking: fast/system I, slow/system II
Type
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Information
The Future of Evidence-Based Policing , pp. 193 - 210
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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