Annotated Bibliographies

McAfee, J.K., & Musso, S.L. (1995). Training police officers about persons with disabilities: A 50-state policy analysis. Remedial and Special Education, 16 (1), 53-63.

After reviewing the literature available on the relationship between crime and disability, the authors conducted a study to address two research questions. First, they sought to find out to what extend have states established policies regarding the inclus ion of disability awareness in initial police training. Second, they probed into the general nature of the content of the training for those states with existing policy. The results of the study indicate the majority of states provide training in the area of mental illness and in generic skills (i.e. crisis intervention). Mental retardation is often viewed as a form of mental illness in criminal law. Variability in the types and quantity of training is great. The overall impression gained from this study is that the officers who influence training in most states recognize the need to gain an understanding of the impact of disabilities in order to be fair to victims and accused person with disabilities, provide protection to citizens with disabilities, and to avoid inappropriate confrontations. Although this research study informs us that most states provide some disabilities training to officers, it does not provide insight into the specific content, quality, or effectiveness of that training. The article s identifies additional questions that should be addressed in further research.