Suspicion formation among police officers: an international literature review

Recent research on racial profiling has renewed attention on how police officers develop suspicions about citizens, and how these suspicions influence the official behavior of police. In order to guide the current research, a review of the wealth of existing qualitative and quantitative research on this topic is necessary. This literature review examines the existing international research in psychology, sociology, and criminology on police officer development of suspicion. It also lays out a framework for organizing the findings with four broad methods of suspicion development: stereotypical perceptions about typical criminal offenders, prior knowledge about specific citizens; incongruent circumstances, and suspicious nonverbal cues. It concludes with the few studies linking officer suspicions to official police behavior.     

The perceived levels of job satisfaction among police officers: A descriptive review

Whereas job satisfaction is a popular research topic among industrial and organizational psychologists, police organizational researchers have all but ignored the area of job satisfaction. Considering its link to many organizationally important factors, such as productivity, morale, and personnel turnover, research on job satisfaction in policing should be important. The identification of how satisfied police officers are with various jobrelated factors can be extremely useful to the police executive. This article examines perceived satisfaction of a purposive sample of 2611 police officers, with respect to 23 job-specific and three global job satisfaction items.     

The custody orientation of correctional officers: An international comparison

Correctional officers are the most numerous of staff in correctional institutions, and thus an important component in the functioning of the prison. Previous research has identified a subgroup of correctional officers who have been termed “custody oriented.” These officers value the security and supervison aspect of corrections work, and many times hold negative attitudes towards inmates. In order to ascertain the variables that may give rise to a custody orientation and to determine if these variables operate cross‐culturally, the attitudes of American (n = 229) and Canadian (n = 339) correctional officers were examined. The custody orientation of both groups was virtually identical, but the determinants of this custody orientation were quite different for the two groups of officers.     

The tactical choices of police patrol officers

This article presents the results of an attempt to describe exhaustively the tactics chosen by police patrol officers when handling highly problematic situations. The observations were made in Denver, Colorado, and focused on domestic disputes and “stops” for violations of motor vehicle regulations. The study determined that thirty-three categories were required to describe adequately what police did in domestic disputes and fourteen for motor vehicle stops. Tactical choices were found to vary according to the stage of the encounter between police and public. Tactics at three stages of encounters— contact, processing, and exit—were mapped and the relations between choices at each stage determined. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the relationship between tactical choices and situational factors.     

Job satisfaction: The gender perspective among police officers

Although women constitute more than 50% of the United States’ population, their percentage among police officers is approximately 9%. Despite being relatively new to policing as fully accepted officers, their growth in numbers should be higher. Nevertheless, such growth may be stagnant. The reasons for this phenomenon are still under examination, and any research that can shed light on this quandary is useful. This article examines job satisfaction among police officers and whether there is a difference by gender. The belief is that if job satisfaction among women police officers is low, this could reflect why more women are not entering law enforcement. However, the data analyzed from a purposive sample of 2,309 male and 309 female officers suggest that there is little difference in job satisfaction solely by gender.     

Determinants of public confidence in police: An international perspective

Previous studies concerning public confidence in the police had primarily focused on demographic, attitudinal, and contextual factors in the United States. Little research, however, has used country-level variables to explain variations that exist across countries. As a result, this study examined the impact of country-level predictors (e.g., homicide rate and level of democracy) as well as individual-level predictors on public confidence in the police by utilizing data sets collected from three international surveys. Using hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) for the multinomial dependent variable, this study found a significant and negative relationship between homicide rate and public confidence in the police. People living in a country with a higher homicide rate reported lower levels of confidence in the police. Level of democracy was also found to be positively related to public confidence in the police. Of the individual-level variables, age and education were found to be significant predictors. A positive relationship was also found between political conservatism or personal satisfaction and confidence in the police. In line with attitudinal and contextual predictors, individuals with higher levels of acceptance toward deviant subcultures reported lower levels of confidence in the police. On the other hand, those who were more satisfied with their country's democratic development showed more favorable attitudes toward the police. The findings of this study implied that police organizations should put greater efforts toward the reduction of crime while protecting democratic values within a society.     

The legal status of the fetus: an international review

The article examines the way that courts and legislatures in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and Australia have answered questions regarding the legal status of a fetus. These questions have arisen in a variety of legal situations: the article deals with succession, criminal, child protection and negligence law. The conclusion offered is that a fetus has a value and an existence that the law should recognise. This does not mean, however, that in all circumstances the law should protect the interests of the fetus. Law-makers will respond differently to claims made on behalf of a fetus, depending on the context. The fetus does not have a uniform value or character in the eyes of the law. The law makes choices as to the situations in which it will take account of actual or threatened antenatal harm.     

基层民警心理问题的深层原因

面对常用的心理治疗措施难以解决民警群体特有心理问题的困境,课题组把弗洛伊德的潜意识观点与心理动力学原理相结合,在基层民警心理健康状况调查数据的基础上,对民警心理能量的形成和转化过程进行分析,从中寻找心理问题形成的深层原因。     

Officer proactivity: A comparison between police field training officers and non-field training officers

This article examines the behavioral differences between police field training officers (FTOs) and non-FTOs in problem-focused efforts and aggressive preventive patrol. The former refers to officer-initiated security checks and attempts to locate citizens, while the latter includes officer-initiated field interrogations and traffic stops. Data used were collected from Indianapolis, Indiana and St. Petersburg, Florida during the summers of 1996 and 1997. Findings show that FTOs, especially those in St. Petersburg, are more proactive than non-FTOs in attempting to locate suspects and witnesses, but they do not differ in the level of proactivity with respect to security checks, field interrogations, and traffic stops. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.     

Interim occupational activities of recalled police officers

The authors examine the interim occupational activities of a sample of police officers who were laid off from their department in 1980 due to budget considerations. Findings from the study indicate that: (1) laid off officers were anxious to return to their former positions; (2) a significant number of those employed during the layoff were in the field of private security; and (3) interest in law enforcement employment during the layoff was partly a function of the officers’ sex. Implications of these findings are examined and discussed. We wish to thank the Detroit Police Department, especially Chief William Hart for permission to undertake the study, Lieutenant Deborah Robinson for her invaluable assistance in collection of the data and the 94 recalled officers for their willingness to participate in the study. Analysis of the data and the conclusions drawn from it are solely the authors’ responsibility.     

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.     

An impact of community policing: Reported stressors, social support, and strain among police officers in a changing police department

Community-based policing requires a radically different philosophical and organizational approach from the more traditional approach to policing. Stress may be experienced during organizational change as areas of responsibility and roles are altered. This study had three primary objectives: to identify (1) the areas officers and their immediate supervisors actually consider stressful, (2) the officers' and supervisors' responses to stress, and (3) the influence of their social support systems on these responses. Data were collected from community coordinators, radio response officers, and sergeants of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina. The officers and sergeants report specific physiological responses, lack of job involvement, and propensity to leave law enforcement; all responses that are considered by the literature to be related to stress. Stressors that are both common in law enforcement in general and stressors unique to a department implementing community policing are found to be significant. Work social support does appear to affect the level of job involvement of the officers. The finding that sergeants do not appear to feel that they have work social support may be working to the detriment of their ability to cope with stress and their willingness to be involved with their job.     

The effects of occupational stress on cognitive performance in police officers

The occupational stress of police officers, and its’ effect on working memory and other psychological and behavioral factors over a two-week work period have been investigated. Cognitive performance and stress levels were examined at pre and post work cycles by using a memory test and several self-reporting surveys, each designed for a specific purpose and to gauge a particular set of behaviors and personality traits. The police officers were assigned to patrol duties at the time of the investigation and placed into three groups based on years of service (1–20 years). The results of the investigation identified a deficit in working memory in Junior, Veteran, and Senior Officers, based on the Ray Osterreith Complex Figure Scores at Baseline (pre-stress) vs. Test Day (post-stress). The other survey tools measuring stress impact on personality and behavior, did not demonstrate any statistical differences in the responding groups of officers in their survey performances.     

Public perceptions of female police officers on patrol

Women in policing have been the subject of considerable study for the past 20 years. While women perform as well as men in various patrol assignments and situations, they still face a significant amount of disapproval from the male police personnel population. Citizens, however, have shown a greater acceptance of women in this male-dominated occupation and a greater confidence in women’s abilities to effectively perform difficult patrol tasks. The purpose of the present research is to determine the perceptions that residents of two Kentucky counties have of female patrol officers and if those perceptions affirm previous findings. The socioeconomic foundations for those residents’ perceptions are also examined. The research instrument consisted of 17 closed-ended and matrix questions. Two hundred responses were obtained. The results of this study will indicate the public’s growing acceptance of women in this non-traditional gender role, which is a requisite development for the overall objective of attaining equality and equity for women in police work. Recommendations are presented for the purposes of explaining the inevitable changes in the gender makeup and purposes of police work and the need for police personnel and the public to accept those changes. Winner of 1995 Outstanding Undergraduate Paper Award, Southern Criminal Justice Association