Trauma-informed policing: a scoping review

Trauma-informed policing focuses on reducing the long-term impacts of trauma and minimising re-traumatisation. An increasing understanding of the effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences and the use of trauma-informed practices highlights the potential benefits of trauma-informed approaches within policing. This scoping review includes papers published between 2000 and October 2025, sourced from PsycINFO, Scopus, SocINDEX, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and Google Scholar. Screening and data extraction were performed independently to capture definitional information, implementation factors, key outcomes from, and barriers to, trauma-informed policing. Advancing trauma-informed policing requires standardised definitions, increased methodological rigour, integrated top-down and bottom-up approaches, and the inclusion of under-represented cohorts within research efforts. Policy implications include mapping trauma-informed policing to established trauma-informed care frameworks, a combination of general and specialised training; a dual focus on officer well-being and the trauma histories and experiences of the public; and the implementation of trauma-informed supervision and communities of practice. Directions for future research include the development of clear guidelines for the incorporation of quality assurance evaluations in future reviews, differential effects of training duration and context, longitudinal examinations of evolving attitudes and operational impacts, more sophisticated research designs (such as cluster randomised control trials and stepped-wedge designs), and reviews comparing specialist versus generalist training/policies.