Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although the literature concerning police and people with mental illness is expanding in the US and other developed nations, little is known about what factors affect interactions between the police and those citizens suffering from a mental illness in the developing world. Muir’s seminal work on policing provides a typology of police officer behavior. In the development of his typology, he compares the behavior of officers who have a "tragic" versus a "cynical" view of the human condition. While this framework was originally developed to help police departments anticipate problems among officers, it might be useful in understanding police interactions with the mentally ill. Specifically, we can learn if officers who adopt a “tragic” viewpoint are more likely to refer citizens with mental illness to social services than their counterparts who hold a more “cynical” point of view.

This paper investigates the applicability of Muir’s typology to explain those factors that affect an officer’s approach to dealing with people with mental illness. Using survey data from 234 constables and their immediate supervisors in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, an explanatory model is developed and tested using logistic regression. The findings suggest that this model can explain variations in officer beliefs about people with mental illness.