Date of Award

8-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice

Department

Criminal Justice

First Reader/Committee Chair

John Reitzel

Abstract

The criminological literature on the effects of Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) among police in handling of crisis situations involving persons with mental illness (PMI) has emerged as a critical in modern policing. This study seeks to add to the literature on policing persons with mental illness by investigating the effects of CIT training, officer characteristics, and crisis incidences in the Seattle, Washington Police Department. There are two models that is used for this study. The first model focuses on the aforementioned factors in predicting police to use force in such incidents. The second model focus on officer dispositions. The data gathered for this study were obtained from the Seattle police department from 2015-2020. A total of 70,765 cases were analyzed in a five-year period.

Findings from the study will contribute to our understanding of the association between of crisis intervention training and policing people with mental illness.

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