Affiliations: [a] Department of Psychology, Social Psychology Unit. Group Research in Criminology, Legal Psychology and Social Justice, Universidade da Coruna, Spain
| [b] Department of Psychology, Universidade da Coruna, Spain
| [c] Department of Human Resource Management, HAN University of Applied Sciences in Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| [d] Faculty of Psychology, Open University Heerlen, Heerlen, The Netherlands
| [e] Norwegian School of Management, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
| [f] Faculty of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Techonology, Trondheim, Norway
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Adela Reig-Botella, Faculty of Work Science, Department of Psychology, Campus Esteiro, Universidad de A Coruña, R/ San Ramón, s/n, 15403 Ferrol, A Coruña, Spain. Tel.: +34 881013581; E-mail: adela.reig@udc.es.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Youth, unemployment and poverty confirm a set of situations that are often inseparable. An example of this is the case of young people from the Andean coca areas. OBJECTIVE:To develop and validate a psychological test that can be used as a predictor of adequate police performance for use in police force recruitment. METHODS:The study comprised a sample of 713 young people, who were selected to join a pre-police training program designed to allow them to subsequently join the Peruvian police force. A new 200-item instrument, called Nemesis, was created. Derogatis’ SCL-90 test was administered to determine the validity of the new instrument. The suitability of the items for the future questionnaire was determined through factor analysis, which reduced the questionnaire to 14 items. Logistic regression was used to determine whether the items on the scale could predict possible admittance into the police training academy. RESULTS:A statistical regression analysis showed that the global percentage of correct predictions exceeded chance by almost 15%. Based on this analysis, the scale was determined to be valid. CONCLUSIONS:The proposed objective of verifying the psychometric properties of the Nemesis scale was fulfilled, as the scale has adequate reliability and validity.
