Required reading
Thank you for the thorough report on "Policing in Black and White" in the December Monitor. We are currently developing online courses for law enforcement officers across the state of Georgia in the areas of community relations and cultural awareness. When I was researching these topics, I found your article, and we will now include it as a required reading assignment in the "Cultural Awareness" course and recommended reading in the "Community Relations" course. I truly believe that it will have a tremendous impact on officers across the state of Georgia.
Melissa White
Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, Georgia
Understanding suicide
Some thoughts on "Suicidal Risk in Young Children" in the December Monitor: Everyone considers suicide sometime, the risk factors being the presence of suicidal ideation and plan, the presence of deadly means and the strength of self-control. Some kids who are believed to have died accidentally have really committed suicide. While I was in graduate school, a very smart psychologist wrote that young kids can't truly commit suicide since they lack understanding of death. Even then, being relatively unstudied, I considered this viewpoint naive.
Stanley Goldstein, PhD
Middletown, N.Y.
Overcoming our innate biases
As noted by the October Monitor article, "Left Out," biases are a part of human nature. While professionals in the mental health field should perhaps be more aware of potential biases than is the general public, they are certainly not immune to having biases. According to this article, minority populations are still facing discrimination from psychologists. Given the considerable effort which APA and training programs have made to combat discrimination, why do psychologists engage in unfair discrimination? It is somewhat depressing to realize that even with extensive training, there are members of our profession who seem to have an inability to control if not overcome these innate biases.
Christine Chason
Counseling psychology doctoral student, Auburn University
Please send your letters to APA Monitor on Psychology Editor Sara Martin at smartin@apa.org. Letters should be limited to 175 words and may be edited for space and clarity.