Police attitudes toward people with intellectual disability: an evaluation of awareness training.
One short class cut police support for eugenic views toward people with intellectual disability.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers ran a short awareness class for police officers. The class taught facts about people with intellectual disability.
Officers took a short survey before and after the class. A second group of officers got no class and only the survey.
The goal was to see if the class could lower support for eugenic ideas.
What they found
Officers who took the class showed less support for eugenic views. The no-class group did not change.
One session was enough to shift attitudes.
How this fits with other research
Hronis et al. (2018) later asked mental-health clinicians the same question. They also found low confidence when working with clients who have intellectual disability.
Lucassen et al. (2025) moved the idea into hospitals. They showed that teaching staff the medical causes of disability cuts social distance.
Oliver et al. (2002) used the same training style—behavioral skills training—with residential staff. They also saw positive staff change, but only for clients with lower adaptive skills.
Why it matters
You can copy the police model in your own setting. A single, short class can move attitudes. Use it with security staff, bus drivers, or new RBTs. Add clear facts and face-to-face discussion. Track attitude shifts with a quick pre-post survey. If it works for police, it can work for your team.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
It is argued that more favourable police attitudes to people with intellectual disability (ID) are essential in meeting the police code of ethics, which stresses impartiality and respect for human dignity. The need to acknowledge and investigate the extent of support for eugenic attitudes in other key professionals who have a significant role in the successful inclusion of people with ID in community settings is discussed. The present paper reports on the evaluation of an awareness training event conducted by the Royal Ulster Constabulary in terms of the impact on attitudes towards people with ID held by police officers. The quasi-experimental design involved the measurement of participants' attitudes prior to and following awareness training, and the comparison of these data with a control group of participants who did not undertake awareness exercises. The Attitudes toward Mental Retardation and Eugenics (AMRE) scale was the instrument used to measure attitudes. Analysis identified the presence of varying degrees of support for the application of eugenic principles to people with ID. Furthermore, the results indicate that participation in the awareness exercise and subsequent discussions is associated with a significant reduction in support for eugenic-based attitudes towards people with ID by the police officers involved. Investment in training events which target attitudes towards people with ID can bring about a shift in reported attitudes. The importance of evaluating such awareness-raising exercises and their impact on police behaviour is highlighted.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2001 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2788.2001.00339.x