Identifying variation in police officer behavior between juveniles and adults

This research explores the basis of officer decision making during encounters with juvenile suspects, and compares these encounters to those between police and adults. Specifically, two types of officer behavior are examined: the decision to arrest, and the exercise of authority. Officer behavior during encounters with juvenile suspects is compared and contrasted to encounters with adult suspects. Results from multivariate analyses find juveniles are significantly more likely to be arrested than adults; however, officers do not exercise different levels of authority during interactions with juvenile suspects. Results also indicate that the factors shaping officer behavior varies across age of suspect, namely, the community context and officer's race offer significantly different influences on juveniles than on adults. Other factors also influence officer discretion differently depending on the age of the suspect, most noteworthy being disrespectful demeanor. The results indicate that police officer behavior during encounters with juvenile suspects is very different than during encounters with adults.     

Cops and drivers: Police discretion and the enforcement of Maine's 1981 OUI law

This study examined police discretionary behavior in stopping and arresting drivers suspected of drunken driving in the state of Maine (U.S.A.). A sample of 186 officers was questioned at the beginning and end of a one-year period with respect to their attitudes toward OUI (Operating Under the Influence of Alcohol) law enforcement and their discretionary behavior in regard to OUI.Significant minorities of police officers reported that they made decisions either not to apprehend (thirty-three percent) or not to arrest (forty-one percent) OUI suspects in the study year. Officers who reported discretionary decisions not to apprehend or arrest generally did so infrequently—i.e. five percent of possible apprehensions and ten percent of possible arrests.Type of police department was significantly associated with decisions not to stop OUI suspects: officers in large departments ( ≥ 20 officers) reported more discretion. Officers with longer service careers, administration responsibilities, high personal priorities on OUI enforcement, and favorable opinions of the climate of OUI enforcement were less likely not to arrest OUI suspects.     

Race and Officer Decision Making: Examining Differences in Arrest Outcomes between Black and White Officers

Since the 1960s, one of the major reform efforts in law enforcement has been to increase the number of Black Americans within police agencies and on patrol in the streets. The general premise behind these efforts has been that increased diversity will improve police–community relations and will decrease biased police behavior, particularly against Black citizens. Policies seeking to reform policing through increasing the numbers of African American officers have been implemented with little empirical evidence that an officer's race (or ethnicity) is actually related to their behavior towards citizens, in particular arrest decisions. Using data from systematic social observations of police–citizen encounters in Cincinnati, OH, this study examines the influence of officer race on arrest outcomes, focusing on the behavior of Black officers. Findings suggest that officer race has direct influence on arrest outcomes and there are substantive differences between White and Black officers in the decision to arrest. In general, White officers in our study were more likely to arrest suspects than Black officers, but Black suspects were more likely to be arrested when the decision maker was a Black officer.     

Does residency matter? Local residency as a predictor of arrest

Prior studies show that a number of offender characteristics impact police officer use of discretion. Although there are exceptions, characteristics such as race and gender have been shown to influence decisions made by police officers with racial/ethnic minorities and men more likely to be arrested than their counterparts. Yet, much less is known about the impact of morphology, an important component from Black’s Behavior of Law, on enforcement decisions. Using 2014 state-wide data on Class ‘B’ arrests in Idaho, we examine the role of morphology, as operationalized by offender residency in the community in which the violation occurred, on the odds of a police officer affecting an arrest as opposed to writing a citation for the violation. Results of logistic regression models show that local residents are significantly less likely to experience an arrest than non-residents. Theoretical explanations and implications for these findings are offered.     

Use of force by female police officers

Do female police officers use force at the same rate as male police officers? This research examined the use of force by officers in a large, suburban police department during a seven-year period (1993-1999). Use of force reports completed by departmental policy for each use-of-force incident (n = 1,863) and data on arrests (n = 31,778) were examined. A rate of force, defined as the number of use-of-force incidents per one hundred arrests, was computed for male and female officers for each type of force used. A suspect-injury rate, defined as the number of suspects injured per one hundred arrests, also was computed.Force was used in only a small percentage (5.9 percent) of the arrests made. Injury to the suspect (not including the effects of OC spray) occurred in an even smaller percentage (1.6 percent) of arrests, and injury to the suspect resulting in treatment at a hospital (generally, emergency room treatment) occurred in a still smaller percentage (0.7 percent) of arrests.No statistically significant difference between female and male officers was found in the overall rate of force or in the rate of unarmed physical force. Female officers had a lower rate of weapon use when all types of weapons were considered together (p. < 0.05), but not when the different types of weapons were considered individually. Female officers also had a lower rate of any suspect injury (p. < 0.05), but there was no statistically significant difference in the rate of suspect injury resulting in treatment at a hospital. The differences found, even when statistically significant, were small in absolute terms.     

Shift patterns and hardiness: Police use of lethal force during simulated incidents

In the present experiment, utilizing the Film Fire' shooting simulation system, the effects of shift patterns and hardiness on police officers' judgments (decisions to (i) shoot at a suspect and (ii) taking cover during the confrontation) were examined. Sixty-one Authorised Firearms Officers were briefed on two “incidents” they would be asked to attend. The experiment took place at three different times, each time one hour before completion of the shift: at 1 p.m. (early day shift), 9 p.m. (late day shift), or 5 a.m. (night shift). In one incident the officer would be justified in shooting the suspect, whereas in the other incident it would be difficult for the officer to justify having shot the suspect. Because in both incidents the suspects were threatening the police officer, taking cover during both incidents would be desirable. Results revealed that most erroneous decisions occurred during the early shift, and that officers low in hardiness made more incorrect judgments than officers high in hardiness. Implications of the findings are discussed. Authors' Note: This study has been sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), studentship award given to the first author.     

Suspect Demeanor and Arrest: a Triggered Displacement of Aggression Explanation

The evidence that police arrest suspects who display a disrespectful demeanor is mixed. One explanation for these equivocal results may be triggered displaced aggression theory. This theory suggests persons who are provoked to anger internalize their aggression and unleash it later on someone or something that further agitates them. A sample of officers was primed for either a positive or negative affect, presented with a domestic disturbance vignette, and asked to rate their likelihood of making an arrest. In one vignette version the suspect displayed a hostile demeanor and in the other the suspect’s demeanor was neutral. Officers who were negatively primed and encountered the hostile demeanor suspect were most likely to arrest compared to officer in the other conditions.     

Substance abuse and crime: A local jail assessment

Conclusion The clear picture of multiple arrests and conviction patterns emerged from the study which might indicate long term problems, perhaps with subcultural motivation. Many inmates indicated informally that the pressures to use drugs and alcohol “on the streets” are quite strong, and will be difficult to resist after release. Several of the older inmates who had been heavily addicted before their arrests volunteered to serve as counselors to explain the hazards of drug and alcohol abuse to younger inmates. Unfortunately, a significant number of these inmates also stated that they would probably continue to use drugs upon It would appear that we may expect these relationships to continue in the future, unless some dramatic efforts are made in the enforcement of drug laws, prevention of the gross availability of illegal drugs and legal alcohol, and in the effective rehabilitation of substance abusing offenders. Of particular importance (and difficulty) will be isolating and curbing those social forces which motivate persons to continue using drugs and alcohol in seemingly irrational quantities and combinations, even after arrest and incarceration for substance abuse related behavior.     

Exploring the two trigger fingers thesis: racial and ethnic differences in officer involved shootings

This article provides a comparative, qualitative and quantitative, analysis of officer-involved shootings of residents who were white, black, or Latino in the City and County of Denver, Colorado from 1983 to 2012. This research project combined district attorney summaries, police shooting files, and police shooting video interviews to understand the patterns involving 213 officer-involved shootings resulting in 103 deaths. Thematically, the differences by race and ethnicity are outlined by three themes including (1) suspect characteristics, (2) officer characteristics, and (3) contextual factors. The findings highlight similarities and differences between incident narratives and compare these observations with aggregated statistics to explore whether law enforcement officers possess one trigger finger for whites and another for blacks and Latinos. This comprehensive analysis of racial and ethnic differences in officer-involved shootings indicates the intersectionality of suspect and officer characteristics along with contextual factors.     

Japanese Suspect Interviews,Confessions, and Related Factors

Two hundred and ninety-one new adult male inmates convicted of murder, robbery, arson, rape, forcible indecency, and kidnapping completed questionnaires about their pretrial interviews. Logistic regression analyses revealed that marital status, feelings of guilt, and perceptions of the strength of the evidence significantly affected the likelihood of confession by those who had already decided to confess prior to interview. By contrast, prior arrest history and interview style affected the likelihood of confession by those who had not previously decided to confess. Suspects who had no previous arrests and had undergone either Undifferentiated-high or Relationship-focused interviews were more likely to make full confessions. In Undifferentiated-high interviews, police officers employed all of the interviewing techniques examined: they listened closely to the suspects’ accounts, attempted to build good relationships, and discussed the crimes, while also presenting evidence and confronting the suspects. In Relationship-focused interviews, police officers listened attentively to the offenders’ accounts, tried to build good relationships, and discussed the crimes directly. Prisoners who experienced Relationship-focused interviews felt satisfied with their confessions and admitted guilt at trial.     

POLICING MENTALLY DISORDERED SUSPECTS: A REEXAMINATION OF THE CRIMINALIZATION HYPOTHESIS*

The criminalization hypothesis is based on the assumption that police inappropriately use arrest to resolve encounters with mentally disordered suspects. The current study uses data collected from two large‐scale, multisite field studies of police behavior‐the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN) conducted in 1996–1997 and the Police Services Study (PSS) conducted in 1977‐to examine the relationship between suspect mental health and use of arrest by police. Multivariate results show that police are not more likely to arrest mentally disordered suspects. Implications for future research on the criminalization hypothesis are discussed.     

Eyewitness identification procedures for multiple perpetrator crimes: a survey of police in Sweden,Belgium, and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

A considerable proportion of crimes involve multiple perpetrators. Yet, little is known about how police officers construct, administer, and record eyewitness identification procedures for multiple suspects. An online survey of law enforcement agents in Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands (N?=?51) was conducted to obtain an initial understanding of police perceptions of prevalence and characteristics of multiple perpetrator crimes, and to examine identification procedure practices given the little to no guidance provided for police. Practice converged when it came to the use of sequential, photographic lineups, but diverged between and within countries on whether or not suspects of multiple perpetrator crimes should be placed in separate lineups. Results specifically highlight contextual cuing as one critical area for future research in identification for multiple perpetrator crimes (i.e. placing multiple suspects in the same lineup or asking eyewitnesses to look for a specific suspect).     

ARREST FOR DOMESTIC AND OTHER ASSAULTS*

We use the National Crime Victimization Survey to examine whether a suspect's relationship to an assault victim affects whether the police make an arrest. The results indicate that in cases of minor assaults the police are less likely to make an arrest when the suspect is an intimate partner of the victim than when the suspect is an identifiable stranger. However, the police are not as lenient when the suspect is an intimate partner as they are when the suspect is someone else the victim knows. Intimate partner suspects avoid arrest in part because they are less likely to commit their crimes in front of witnesses. In addition, victims who know the suspect in any way are reluctant to sign complaints, and this reluctance inhibits arrest. Men are less likely than women to sign complaints, particularly when the suspect is a partner.     

Does Minority Representation in Police Agencies Reduce Assaults on the Police?

Following recent high-profile deaths of unarmed African American suspects at the hands of police, a number of reforms have been proposed, among them improved minority representation in the ranks of law enforcement organizations. Previous research has explored the effects of minority representation on complaints against the police and other behaviors, but very few studies have examined violence toward the police. We merged several data sources together and tested the hypothesis that minority representation within police departments is inversely associated with assaults against the police. In an extension of prior research, we also conducted separate analyses for African American, Hispanic, and Asian officer representation. The results did not support the expectation that diversity within police organizations results in improved police-citizen interactions, as measured by assaults on police. This study is one of the few to examine how different measures of minority representation in police agencies relates to assaults on the police.     

A study of the potential risk of gunshot residue transfer from special units of the police to arrested suspects

The presence of gunshot residues (GSRs) on arrested suspects can help the Court to form an opinion regarding the possibility of utilization of firearms by these suspects. Since the presence of a few particles can in some cases already have a strong indicative value, the GSR experts have to evaluate in their daily work the risk of a potential contamination of these suspects during their arrest. A few studies conducted on police officers and police facilities concluded that the risk of secondary transfer on arrested suspects is quite negligible. However, the case of special force units of the police should be taken into account, since these units can be assumed to be highly contaminated by GSR due to their intensive training. The aim of this study is to evaluate this possibility of particle transfer by performing simulations of arrests by special force police units, according to both low and high contamination scenarios. The results show that secondary transfers of GSR during these simulations are in most cases not negligible, even for the low contamination scenario. This is especially apparent on the vests of the target persons, with an average of 7 GSR particles (2 PbBaSb and 5 TiZn) found on the stubs used on these materials. Of course, the major contamination levels were observed in the case of the high contamination scenario, due to the use of highly contaminated gloves by the police officers during the arrests. Some recommendations are proposed to take into account this risk of contamination and to try to minimize it, or at least to better identify it.     

POLICE RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: SITUATIONS INVOLVING VETERANS EXHIBITING SIGNS OF MENTAL ILLNESS*

Drawing on attribution theory, research on police discretion, and public attitudes toward mental illness, we examine attributional processes in police decision making in response to domestic violence situations involving veterans and nonveterans with signs of mental illness. Using data from experimental vignettes varying veteran status, victim injury, and suspect compliance administered to a sample of 309 police officers, the results indicate that 1) veterans are perceived as less responsible for troublesome behavior but more dangerous than nonveterans, 2) suspects’ veteran status has a significant effect on officers’ preference for mental health treatment versus arrest, and 3) part of the effect of veteran status on officer response is mediated by internal and external attributions for problematic behavior and by perceptions of dangerousness. The study empirically demonstrates countervailing processes in police decision making—recognition of the causes for troublesome behavior and the need for mental health treatment on the one hand and concern for community safety and enforcing the law on the other.     

On the Limits of Social Control: Structural Deterrence and the Policing of “Suppressible” Crimes

The present study examined the relationships between patterns of police arrests and subsequent variations in robbery, burglary, and aggravated assault in New York City police precincts from 1989 to 1998. Grounded in the structural deterrence theoretical perspective, and using a two‐stage fixed‐effects statistical framework, the study found that while controlling for indicators of social disorganization, increases in arrest vigor (i.e., arrests per officer for violent crimes in each precinct and raw arrest counts) predicted decreases in robbery and burglary, but that the relationships were non‐linear: as arrest vigor increased, robbery and burglary crime decreased; when arrest thresholds were reached, however, both robbery and burglary crime rates became positively associated with arrest aggressiveness. Conversely, variations in aggressive arrest patterns had no significant effect on aggravated assault, supporting the suppressible crimes arguments that primarily economically motivated crimes, and those that tend to occur in public settings, are most likely deterred by aggressive police practices.     

To bite or not to bite: Canine apprehensions in a large, suburban police department

There is a dearth of empirical research on the use of police canines. This article examines the use of canines in a large, suburban police department over a six-year period (1993-1998). Use of force reports, canine-apprehension reports, arrest data, and the canine unit's monthly activity reports were reviewed. Five rates were calculated: (1) canine-apprehension rate, (2) canine bite rate, (3) rate of bites resulting in any medical treatment, (4) rate of bites resulting in medical treatment at a hospital, and (5) officer injury rate. Of the suspects apprehended by canines, 14.1 percent were bitten, 9.1 percent received medical attention (on the scene or at a hospital), and 4.8 percent received medical attention at a hospital. The canine bite rate was significantly lower for non-White suspects than for White suspects. The use of rate-based information for the evaluation of policy and procedure concerning the use of police canines is discussed.     

Police officers’ judgements of veracity,tenseness, cognitive load and attempted behavioural control in real-life police interviews

Abstract

The present experiment examined the apparently incongruent findings that police officers (i) believe that suspects show nervous behaviour when they lie but (ii) seem able to detect deceit in suspects who do not show nervous behaviours. It was hypothesized that police officers’ judgements about whether a suspect is lying would not be correlated with their judgements regarding whether the suspect is tense, but, instead, would be correlated with their judgements regarding whether suspects are having to think hard or attempting to control their behaviour.

Each of 84 police officers saw seven truths and seven lies told by suspects during their police interviews. Participants in Condition 1 were asked to indicate after each clip whether the suspect was lying, whereas participants in Condition 2 were asked to note after each clip to what extent the suspect appeared to be tense, having to think hard or attempting to control their behaviour. Condition 3 was a combination of Conditions 1 and 2 and participants were asked all the above questions. The findings support the hypotheses and therefore negate the assumption that police officers primarily look for cues of nervousness when they attempt to detect deceit.