Abstract
Following recent changes to the juvenile justice system in South Australia, police officers are expected to adopt a more proactive role in intervening with young offenders. The present study addressed the possible role of attitudinal, personality, and demographic differences as predictors of police preparedness to employ diversionary practices with young offenders. Participants were 201 operational police officers. Examined were the relationships between reported diversionary behavior in response to juvenile and adult offending scenarios and individual differences in legal authoritarianism, punitiveness, proactive personality, empathy, job classification, educational level, age, and length of service. Preparedness to divert adult offenders was significantly predicted by age (negatively). Although preparedness to divert young offenders was partially explained by responses to adult offending scenarios, empathy, legal authoritarianism (negatively) and, to a lesser degree, educational level, made significant unique contributions to a predictive model. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding of the manner in which police are likely to exercise discretionary powers with juvenile offenders.
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