Force,Stress, and Decision-Making Within the Belgian Police: the Impact of Stressful Situations on Police Decision-Making

Stress and fear are inevitable aspects of the police job and may have a large impact on police officers’ decision-making process. Many studies have explored how stress and fear may influence assessments of police officers, especially with regard to the use of force. This article aims to contribute to this research domain by reporting the findings from two empirical studies among Belgian police officers: a quantitative study of police officers’ attitudes towards and experiences with the use of force and a qualitative study on the influence of stress and emotions on officers’ decision-making and assessment abilities and accuracy of shooting. Both studies confirmed that stress and fear are often present in Belgian police practice. One of the main findings is that Belgian police officers are anxious about the consequences of their actions because they know they will be held accountable for them. The pressure that results from this accountability can make it even more difficult for police officers to react to stressful situations. Therefore, we need to look for the right balance in this difficult position, by providing tools that support police officers in making daily decisions, and help them do their job as effectively as possible.     

Prior Police Contact and Subsequent Victim Reporting: Results from the NCVS

This study investigated the association between victim reporting and the police response to past victimizations with data from the National Crime Victimization Survey from 1998–2000. The findings include: (1) investigatory effort by police when an individual had been victimized in the past increased the likelihood that the individual would report an ensuing victimization to the police; (2) however, this relationship only held when the victim, rather than someone else, reported the prior victimization to the police; (3) whether the police made an arrest after an individual was victimized in the past had no effect on whether the individual reported an ensuing victimization to the police; (4) the probability of victim reporting was unaffected by investigatory effort or whether an arrest was made after a prior victimization of a member of the victim’s household.     

Fair Treatment or Preferred Outcome? The Impact of Police Behavior on Victim Reports of Domestic Violence Incidents

This research is an exploratory test of two hypotheses emerging from debates about how police behavior may influence domestic violence victim reporting. From a procedural justice perspective, victims should be more apt to report victimization when previous encounters with police are viewed as procedurally fair. From a distributive justice perspective, denying victims their preferred outcome may discourage future police utilization. We find that satisfaction with police is related to both distributive and procedural justice but that re-utilization of police is conditioned by preferred outcome. Specifically, if the offender was arrested in accordance with victim preference, the victim is significantly more apt to utilize police in the future.     

The Influence of Police Actions on Victim Satisfaction in Burglary Investigations

This paper is concerned with the satisfaction of burglary victims with the service provided by the U.K. police. The study, funded by the U.K. Home Office's Police Research Group, was conducted in the West Midlands and considers the role of police actions, victims' characteristics, and victims' perceptions in shaping victim satisfaction. Victim satisfaction, which was lower than in a number of previous studies, depended on how well police actions and outcomes of cases met victims' expectations. Satisfaction was dependent to a great extent on the manner of the first officer to reach the burglary scene, and also on keeping victims informed about the outcome of investigations, activities which the force can readily address. Improved detection rates and better property recovery would also boost satisfaction, but these are influenced in part by factors both under police control, and are less likely to be easily achieved. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the importance of relating police records to victims' expressed satisfaction, and their perceptions of police actions when framing policies aimed at meeting victims' preferences.     

Body Transportation after Homicides: Offender and Offense Characteristics

Body transportation is defined as moving the body of the victim from the scene of a homicide to another location. We analyzed data on 513 South Korean homicide cases with convictions to compare 104 homicides involving the transportation of victims’ bodies with 409 homicides that did not. Offenders who transported their victims’ bodies were significantly younger and more likely to be related to the victims and were less likely to use sharp instruments and more likely to use blunt instruments or strangle the victims than offenders who did not. Victims of homicide involving body transportation were more likely to suffer injuries to the neck and head and less likely to suffer injuries to the torso. Finally, offenders who transported victims’ bodies were more likely to have planned the offense and destroyed evidence. The present findings have practical implications for police investigations.     

集合犯的法定性特征研究

集合犯是指构成要件自身预设了同种行为反复实施的犯罪形态,反复实施的同种行为即使分别符合各个构成要件,但在性质上它们被包括地作为一罪评价和处断.立法对集合犯的规定并不都具有一目了然的明确性,在多数情况下,需要结合集合犯的构成特征进行分析确认.刑事立法的规定性是集合犯的重要法律特征,是其与连续犯等相近罪数形态区分的显著标志,也是集合犯以人格责任为其法理基础的立法体现.     

AUTO THEFT Offender and Offense Characteristics

Few empirical studies describe auto thieves. The most influential and frequently cited research is that by Wittenberg and Blusterier who characterize auto theft as a “favored-group” delinquency. The findings of the present study challenge this conclusion. Although the majority of those arrested for auto theft are white. blacks are disproportionately represented; most thieves come from lower-class neighborhoods: and the distribution of juvenile thieves by fathers’ occupational status does not appear to differ from that of other delinquents. Five types of out theft are suggested; the offender and offense characteristics are empirically examined.     

The Adaptation of License-plate Readers for Investigative Purposes: Police Technology and Innovation Re-invention

Scholarship has focused on the use of license plate readers by patrol officers as a rational instrument for accomplishing key policing goals, including recovering stolen vehicles. In contrast, this paper applies the theoretical framework of innovation reinvention to explain how license plate readers are being used by criminal investigators in more novel ways. This perspective provides insights into the practical benefits of an enhanced version of this technology. More significantly, it helps illuminate the innovation attributes and the organizational determinants that contribute to its adaptation. In our case study of an agency with extensive deployment of license plate readers, we found that factors contributing to their reinvention included their widespread availability and compatibility with other information systems, their lack of complexity, the characteristics of their users, and the role of leadership in promoting their use. These findings have implications for advancing knowledge about the complex nature of the innovation process.     

Police Empathy and Victim PTSD as Potential Factors in Rape Case Attrition

This exploratory study investigated whether rape victims’ subjective perceptions of whether to proceed with legal action were associated with their experience of disclosing to the police during their initial interview. Specifically, the study investigated associations between symptoms of PTSD, shame and self-blame post-rape, subjective perceptions of police empathy and subjective perception of victims’ intentions to take the case to court. Participants (N = 22) were found to have elevated levels of PTSD severity, shame and self-blame. Police empathy was positively correlated with victims’ ratings of likelihood of taking the case to court, and negatively correlated with PTSD severity and shame. These preliminary findings suggest that training police officers how to respond more empathically to psychologically distressed rape victims may potentially help reduce victim attrition rates.     

Chapter 3: The Influence of Juveniles' Race on Police Decision-Making: An Exploratory Study

Previous studies evaluating the effects of juveniles' race on police decision-making have rendered inconclusive results. Many of these studies have suffered from methodological shortcomings. The present study utilized vignettes to describe police-juvenile encounters in order to determine police charging practices for black and white youth. The results suggest modest offense-related race effects. Black youth tend to be charged with more offenses while white youth were released more frequently. A refinement in the research methodology is indicated for further explorations of the critical issue of police bias.     

简评1943年《中华民国违警罚法》

1 94 3年违警罚法汲取了自清末违警罚章程而来的经验教训 ,同时亦注重采纳近代法学、警察学的先进成果和和东西各国的立法成例 ,堪称中国近代违警罚法的典范 ,但在诸多方面仍存在有悖法理精神与警政原理的内容 ;该法尽管因落伍于时代被正式废止 ,但其反映法学与警察学规律的内容足资在修订相关法规时借鉴     

Making an Impact on Juvenile Delinquents: An Approach to Victim Impact Statements that Everyone Can Embrace

The use of victim impact statements occurs in the majority of states' juvenile court proceedings. Many victims' rights advocates celebrate the use of these statements as a valuable means of victim empowerment, as victim impact statements allow victims to convey the personal effects that delinquent acts had on their lives directly to the courts. Yet at the same time, many oppose the use of victim impact statements in juvenile courts because they inhibit judges' ability to focus on delinquent juveniles' rehabilitative needs by infusing the victims' feelings and emotions into the disposition‐crafting process. This article suggests that a balance can be struck between these competing concerns by incorporating victim impact statements into the rehabilitative programs prescribed in the dispositions of delinquent youths, instead of using the statements as an influencing force in crafting the dispositions.     

Patricides and Step-Patricides in Ghana: Victims,Offenders, and Offense Characteristics

There is a paucity of empirical research on patricide in Africa and many non-Western societies. To help fill this scholarly vacuum and contribute to the literature on patricide, the current article presents the results of an analysis of 18 cases of patricide and step-patricide that occurred in Ghana during 1990–2016. Given the exploratory nature of the study, no hypotheses were constructed or tested. Findings indicate that patricide is a rare crime, that sons were disproportionately more likely than daughters to kill their fathers, and that adult children were more likely than adolescent and pre-pubertal children to commit patricide. The results further show that a significant number of the patricides were triggered by offender mental illness. The predominant circumstance, however, was conflict between son and father over a myriad of issues. Three of the 18 patricides were influenced by the perpetrators’ beliefs that their fathers were maleficent witches who had bewitched them. Also, patricide offenses were typically spontaneous rather than premeditated. A recommendation is provided for continued research on patricide in Ghana and other non-Western societies to shed light on an empirically-neglected but vital topic.     

Community Context,Weapon Use,and Victim Injury: A Multi-Level Study of Offense Severity in the Sexual Victimization of Women

American Journal of Criminal Justice - Prior studies of the sexual assault of women suggest the importance of weapon use, victim/offender familiarity, and offender intoxication as factors that...     

解教释放人员重新犯罪的特点与审讯对策

解教释放人员犯罪被判刑入狱后，并没有彻底改造，反而总结作案失败的经验，研究、揣摩侵害对象的心理和寻找立法及管理环节存在的漏洞，由入狱前的犯罪“一面手”变为犯罪的“多面手”。因此，研究解教释放人员重新犯罪的特点和审讯存在的问题，制定相应的审讯对策，是提高办案质量和对解教释放人员重新犯罪打击处理率的重要一环。     

Same Question,Different Answers: Theorizing Victim and Third Party Decisions to Report Crime to the Police

The current study attempts to address a key, but underdeveloped, area in crime reporting literature: the decisions of non-victims to report crime. Drawing on a theory of criminal justice decision-making, we argue that the decision to report a crime reflects a rational process, where the individual considers his or her goals, potential actions, and the relative ability of those actions to achieve the specified goals. Differences in each of these areas result in different decision-making processes for victims and third parties. We offer a preliminary test of our arguments using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey. In general, we find support for our expectations, with third party reporting decisions more heavily influenced by crime seriousness and less so by the offender’s relationship with the victim than are victim reporting decisions. In concluding, we argue that third party reporters should be focal points of future reporting analyses.     

Effects of the NICHD Protocol Training on Child Investigative Interview Quality in Korean Police Officers

This study was conducted to determine, by comparing pre- and post-training interview of 18 Korean police officers, whether training in use of the NICHD Protocol improved the quality of investigative interviews of allegedly abused child victims. Results showed that Korean police officers more often followed the Protocol structure -they introduced themselves, explained the ground rules, and conducted episodic memory training-after they had been trained. Moreover, police officers used approximately three times as many desirable prompts (such as invitations and facilitators) and fewer suggestive prompts in interviews conducted after as opposed to before the training. Invitations elicited approximately four to seven times more details on average than the least productive prompts. These results confirmed that the NICHD Protocol is effective when used to interview alleged child abuse victims in East Asia.     

The Impact of Victim Demographics on Case Outcomes in Delinquency Proceedings: An Empirical Test

While the impact of the defendant's sex and race on processing decisions is well researched, less is known about the impact of the victim's sex and race on juvenile court decision making. Using data from the juvenile court in St. Louis, Missouri, this study explores direct and interactive effects of the victim's sex and race on outcome decisions for juvenile offenders. Findings suggest that legal differences account for most of the observed differences in detention, commitment and adjudication among the sample studied.