Critical Issues in Policing: Training, Decision-Making and Outcomes

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Critical Issues in Policing: Training, Decision-Making and Outcomes,” invites contributions that examine key challenges shaping contemporary policing in these areas. Across many jurisdictions, police agencies are facing heightened public scrutiny, expanding service demands, fiscal constraints, and growing expectations that policing practices be informed by evidence. Within this context, questions surrounding how officers are trained, how they make decisions in complex and uncertain environments, and what outcomes policing practices produce have become central to scholarly and policy debates.

This Special Issue seeks to advance discussion of these issues by bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives on the processes, conditions, and consequences that shape policing practice. We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions that explore how training, decision-making, and outcomes are understood, evaluated, and debated within contemporary policing research and policy. Topics may include, but are not limited to, research addressing the following themes:

Training

• The design, development, and delivery of police training and professional development programs.
• The effectiveness, utility, and evaluation of training initiatives in preparing officers for complex operational environments.
• The organizational and institutional contexts shaping police training and professional learning.
• The role of professional standards, curriculum development, and training philosophies in shaping policing practice.

Decision-Making

• Officer discretion and decision-making processes in complex or uncertain situations.
• Judgement, interpretation, and risk assessment in frontline policing contexts.
• The influence of organizational culture, leadership, and institutional pressures on officer behaviour and decision-making.
• The role of information, data, and technology in shaping police decision-making and operational practices

Outcomes

• Conceptualizations and measurement of policing outcomes, including effectiveness, legitimacy, and accountability.
• The consequences of policing practices for individuals, communities, and institutions.
• The evaluation of policing strategies, practices, and reforms in relation to performance and outcomes.
• Broader governance, policy, and accountability considerations related to policing outcomes.

By bringing together diverse perspectives, this Special Issue aims to advance critical discussion of the training, decision-making processes, and outcomes that shape contemporary policing.

Dr. Lorna Ferguson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles, and short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Social Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Authors should ensure that their manuscripts clearly articulate the theoretical, empirical, or policy contribution they make to one or more of the Special Issue’s focal areas: police training, police decision-making, or policing outcomes.

• policing
• police training
• police decision-making
• policing outcomes and effectiveness
• police reform
• evidence-based policing
• police legitimacy
• police practice and policy
• public trust
• public safety