Since few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of sexual assault investigations training using experimental designs and existing studies have not examined the impact of officers’ levels of impulsivity and education on training effectiveness, the current study used a Solomon four-group quasi-experimental design to assess pre-testing effects in examining the impact of training, impulsivity, and education on officers’ (N = 432) adherence to rape myths and knowledge of victim reporting behaviors.
Ordinary least squares (OLS) models were estimated to examine main effects of training, and moderating effects of impulsivity and education on training for the outcome variables. Results demonstrated that training, impulsivity, and education predicted improvements in attitudinal and cognitive outcomes; however, neither impulsivity nor education moderated—or changed—the effectiveness of training. In addition, training effects held over time, and there was no evidence of pretesting effects. Findings from this study improve understanding of police sexual assault investigations training and provide methodological advancements for police training evaluations. (publisher abstract modified)