Use of Perception during Violent Encounters

This is a continuation of my analysis of the FBI integrative study, “Violent Encounters.”  Today’s focus is on people’s perceptional distortion during violent assaults or other stressful events.  Specifically, we’ll look at the perception of offenders and law enforcement officers during these events.

All humans process the myriad of inputs and data presented to them daily by building and modifying schemas.  These schemas are sets of beliefs used as filters to assess events.  To begin the analysis on offenders, it’s important to note two key uses of their schema prior to their assault on police.  The first aspect is the diagnosis by researchers that nearly half (23 out of 50) of offenders interviewed for “Violent Encounters” had Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD).  The significance of ASPD is that these individuals see the world as a violent environment, and this perception justifies their likewise violent behavior toward police.  The second aspect of offender schema is one developed through their environment.  Offenders are essentially “trained” to deal with violent encounters through their daily life.  When one offender was asked if he’d ever been shot he replied, “Do you mean shot by the police, or shot by someone else?”  It turns out that this offender had been shot four previous times, once by police and three times by rival gang members.  What better training is there to deal with the stress of gunfighting?

Police are similarly affected by schemas.  To ignore this reality in training is both foolish and dangerous.  Foolish because it’s so obviously incorrect, and dangerous because if trainers don’t equip police officers to deal with their perceptions during stressful, potentially violent encounters they will be less prepared.  How then, do we reduce the impact of these schemas?  We train more often, and we train better. 

Without proper training, humans will respond in one of three ways.  They will fight, flee, or freeze.  The goal of training police to handle schemas is to provide additional options.  A key training aspect is the use of force continuum.  Realistic training scenarios that demand an officer to correctly perceive what is occurring will allow the officer to determine the appropriate use of force.  This training provides the officers a methodology to use in violent encounters and mitigates the influence of stress on his decision making.

Effective training paradigms for police should include:

• Adequate, realistic scenarios
• Physical and mental preparation
• Reinforcement that officers can receive a serious wound (gunshot) and continue to fight and survive
• Narratives of real life scenarios where officers survived deadly encounters

Jedburgh Corp offers a wide range of courses specifically designed to leverage this data, and provide the most effective Law Enforcement Training available.  Contact us at info@Jedburgh-USA.com to provide feedback on the blog, or discuss your training needs.  Also, feel free to post your comments.