Handbook of Police Psychology

The Handbook of Police Psychology features contributions from over 30 leading experts on the core matters of police psychology. The collection surveys everything from the beginnings of police psychology and early influences on the profession; to pre-employment screening, assessment, and evaluation; to clinical interventions.

Alongside original chapters first published in 2011, this edition features new content on deadly force encounters, officer resilience training, and police leadership enhancement. Influential figures in the field of police psychology are discussed, including America’s first full-time police psychologist, who served in the Los Angeles Police Department, and the first full-time police officer to earn a doctorate in psychology while still in uniform, who served with the New York Police Department.

The Handbook of Police Psychology is an invaluable resource for police legal advisors, policy writers, and police psychologists, as well as for graduates studying police or forensic psychology.

Jack Kitaeff, PhD, JD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He received his undergraduate education at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, and his graduate psychology education at the State University of New York and the University of Mississippi. He received his law degree from the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University, and completed a legal clerkship with the United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia.

Dr. Kitaeff completed a clinical psychology internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and served as a psychologist and Major in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps. He later became the first police psychologist for the Arlington County Police Department, where he established a pre-employment psychological screening program for all police applicants, and for officers applying for special units such as SWAT, Hostage Negotiations, and VICE. He has been the consulting police psychologist for numerous law enforcement agencies. He has also served as the Director of Psychology for the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Criminology, law and Society at George Mason University, and an adjunct professor with the George Washington University Department of Psychology. He is also a contributing faculty member in the School of Psychology at Walden University. He is a Diplomate in Police Psychology from the Society of Police and Criminal Psychology, a Fellow in the American College of Legal Medicine, and a member of the American Psychological Association. He maintains a private practice in clinical psychology in Fairfax, Virginia.