Summary
"The following thesis examines the impact of accountability on police judgments and decisions within critical incident contexts. Previous accountability research has often failed to balance experimental control with naturalistic context, thereby preventing the development of an integrated socio-cognitive model. Despite the increase in police accountability over the last few decades (Punch, 2009), there has also been a lack of systematic focus on the influence this evaluation mechanism has on policing. Level of risk posed to public safety in critical incidents and the potential for police actions to increase as well as decrease this risk heightens the importance of identifying and understanding factors that influence police judgments and decisions (Ask & Granhag, 2005). Overall, the thesis seeks to both advance theoretic development and highlight practical implications for policing using a combination of experimental and naturalistic methods and theories from traditional, organisational and naturalistic decision paradigms. Research conducted therefore acknowledges the complexity of policing contexts whilst distinguishing the influence of accountability from other factors. In total, five data chapters are presented that comprise of both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data consists of transcripts from electronic focus groups, debriefs and questionnaires that are analysed using thematic analysis. Quantitative data consists of police responses to a vignette and a simulation."--Abstract.