PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PROFESSIONAL FACTORS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LEGAL COMPETENCE AMONG LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

Authors

  • Xamza Safarov

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57033/rrtepw48

Keywords:

legal competence, law enforcement officers, legal consciousness, professional responsibility, decision-making, professional training, legal culture

Abstract

Legal competence is an essential component of professional effectiveness in law enforcement. The work of law enforcement officers requires not only knowledge of legal norms but also the ability to understand, interpret and appropriately apply them in complex social and professional situations. This paper examines the psychological and professional factors associated with the development of legal competence among law enforcement officers. Particular attention is given to legal consciousness, professional responsibility, decision-making, social interaction, the organisational environment and continuous professional training.

References

1. Chan, A., Bradford, B. & Stott, C. (2025). A systematic review and meta-analysis of procedural justice and legitimacy in policing: the effect of social identity and social contexts. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 21, pp. 349–406.

2. Owens, E., Weisburd, D., Amendola, K. L. & Alpert, G. P. (2018). Can you build a better cop? Experimental evidence on supervision, training, and policing in the community. Criminology & Public Policy, 17(1), pp. 41–87.

3. Tyler, T. R. (2006). Why People Obey the Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

4. Tyler, T. R. (2017). Procedural justice and policing: a rush to judgment? Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 13, pp. 29–53.

5. Wood, G., Tyler, T. R. & Papachristos, A. V. (2020). Procedural justice training reduces police use of force and complaints against officers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(18), pp. 9815–9821.

Downloads

Published

2026-08-29

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2026): Proceedings of the 2026 Conference

Section

Conference Papers

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Xamza Safarov (##default.groups.name.author##)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

All contributions published in the SGELC proceedings are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Authors retain copyright and grant the conference the right of first publication. Readers are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, provided that appropriate credit is given to the authors and the original publication.