Matching Items (15)
Description
ABSTRACT Research has shown that the manner in which people are treated in their interactions with agents of the criminal justice system matters. People expect criminal justice officials to treat them fairly and with honesty and respect, which is the basis for procedural justice. When people are treated in a procedurally just and equitable manner they will view the system as legitimate and will be more likely to voluntarily comply and cooperate with legal system directives. People who have personal or vicarious experiences of unfair or unjust interactions with the legal system tend to view the system as less legitimate and are less likely to comply and cooperate when they have contact with representatives of the system. This study examines a random sample of 337 arrestees in Maricopa County, Arizona who have been interviewed as a part of the Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis are used to examine views of the procedural justice experienced by arrestees during arrest, perceptions of police legitimacy by arrestees, voluntary compliance to the law, and voluntary cooperation with police. Results of the study show that perceptions of legitimacy work through procedural justice, and that procedurally just interactions with police mediate racial effects on views of legitimacy. Views of procedural justice and legitimacy increase cooperation. No variables in this study were significantly related to compliance.
ContributorsJorgensen, Cody (Author) / Ready, Justin (Thesis advisor) / White, Michael (Committee member) / Katz, Charles (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
There has been a tremendous amount of innovation in policing over the last 40 years, from community and problem-oriented policing to hot spots and intelligence-led policing. Many of these innovations have been subjected to empirical testing, with mixed results on effectiveness. The latest innovation in policing is the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Smart Policing Initiative (2009). Created in 2009, the SPI provides funding to law enforcement agencies to develop and test evidence-based practices to address crime and disorder. Researchers have not yet tested the impact of the SPI on the funded agencies, particularly with regard to core principles of the Initiative. The most notable of these is the collaboration between law enforcement agencies and their research partners. The current study surveyed SPI agencies and their research partners on key aspects of their Initiative. The current study uses mean score comparisons and qualitative responses to evaluate this partnership to determine the extent of its value and effect. It also seeks to determine the areas of police agency crime analysis and research units that are most in need of enhancement. Findings indicate that the research partners are actively involved in a range of aspects involved in problem solving under the Smart Policing Initiative, and that they have positively influenced police agencies' research and crime analysis functions, and to a lesser extent, have positively impacted police agencies' tactical operations. Additionally, personnel, technology, and training were found to be the main areas of the crime analysis and research units that still need to be enhanced. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for police policy and practice.
ContributorsMartin-Roethele, Chelsie (Author) / White, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / D'Anna, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Knowing that disorder is related to crime, it has become essential for criminologists to understand how and why certain individuals perceive disorder. Using data from the Perceptions of Neighborhood Disorder and Interpersonal Conflict Project, this study uses a fixed photograph of a neighborhood, to assess whether individuals "see" disorder cues. A final sample size of n=815 respondents were asked to indicate if they saw particular disorder cues in the photograph. The results show that certain personal characteristics do predict whether an individual sees disorder. Because of the experimental design, results are a product of the individual's personal characteristics, not of the respondent's neighborhood. These findings suggest that the perception of disorder is not as clear cut as once thought. Future research should explore what about these personal characteristics foster the perception of disorder when it is not present, as well as, how to fight disorder in neighborhoods when perception plays such a substantial role.
ContributorsScott, Christopher (Author) / Wallace, Danielle (Thesis advisor) / Katz, Charles (Committee member) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The controversy over law enforcement use of TASER devices and the potential for the devices to cause death has proliferated in recent years. In 2005 the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) published national-level policy guidelines for the use of TASER devices, with one of the goals being to reduce the occurrence of deaths proximal to their use. What remains unknown in regard to these guidelines is whether or not departments that adhere to these guidelines are experiencing fewer TASER-proximate arrest related deaths (ARDs) than departments who are not. This study seeks to determine preliminary answers to this question by conducting a comparison of the policies of departments with three or more TASER-proximate ARDs to a matched sample of police departments that deploy the TASER, but have no (or one to two) TASER-proximate ARDs. The departments were matched on the number of full time sworn officers, geography (region, division, or state), and department type. Once matched, all department policies were coded based on how closely they adhered to the following areas of PERF and IACP guidelines: use of force against vulnerable/at risk populations, policies governing the TASER device deployment, training, reporting, and post-exposure requirements. Study departments, when compared to matched departments, had a greater number of policy areas with higher failure to comply rates. The same was true when looking at the category totals, as well as the overall totals, with the difference in failure to comply rates being larger for PERF than IACP. These findings show an association between departments with three or more TASER-proximate ARDs and higher failure to comply rates with national model policies. Additionally, it appears that many departments are failing to heed research findings or advice from outside their department. Based on this, future research may want to address the ways in which greater compliance with national policies can be obtained nationwide.
ContributorsRiggs, Courtney (Author) / White, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Sweeten, Gary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Contemporary criminological literature seldom studies important ethnic subgroup differences in crime and delinquency among Hispanic/Latino youth. Therefore, their risk for crime and delinquency is poorly understood in light of the enormous ethnic and generational mixture experiences within of experiences within the Hispanic/Latino population in the United States. Using social control theory and cultural evaluations of familism, this thesis examines dissimilarities in the risk for crime and delinquency, in addition to its relations with family unity, parental engagement, youth independence, and family structure among second generation Mexicans (n = 876) and second generation Cubans (n = 525) using data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) 1991-2006 (Portes and Rumbaut). The results concluded that second generation Cubans who obtained government assistance were more likely to engage in crime than second generation Mexicans. Consistent with social control theory, a major finding in this thesis is that presence of a family member who is involved in criminal activity increased crime within the sample of second generation Mexicans and second generation Cubans. Furthermore, in households less than five, second generation Cubans who have a delinquent family member were more likely than second generation Mexicans who have a delinquent family member to report criminal involvement, while in households greater than five, second generation Mexicans who have a delinquent family member were more likely than second generation Cubans who have a delinquent family member to report criminal involvement.
ContributorsOrtiz, Raul G (Author) / Spohn, Cassia (Thesis advisor) / Rodriguez, Nancy (Committee member) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
It is hypothesized that procedural justice influences citizens' satisfaction with the police. An alternative argument holds that police performance measures, such as perceptions of crime and safety, are more salient. This study empirically investigates the predictive validity of both theoretical arguments. Using mail survey data from 563 adult residents from Monroe County, Michigan, a series of linear regression equations were estimated. The results suggest that procedural justice is a robust predictor of satisfaction with police. In contrast, several police performance measures failed to predict satisfaction with police. Overall, these findings support Tyler and Huo's (2002) contention that judgments regarding whether police exercise their authority in a procedurally-just fashion influence citizens' satisfaction with police more than fear of crime, perceptions of disorder, and the like.
ContributorsSmith, Stacey (Author) / Reisig, Michael D (Thesis advisor) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Holtfreter, Kristy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Effectiveness and efficiency of the police have been contentious topics from the public perspective. Police departments have developed policies to help better their patrol officers' effectiveness on the streets in both quality and timeliness. Although there have been few recent studies about the response time of officers to calls for service, this is a subject that should not go overlooked. As an important aspect to the patrol officer's repertoire, response time can have effects on the community and its perception on the police. This study uses a multi-level modeling approach to examine the effects of incident and neighborhood factors on police response time within a medium size Southwest city. Police departments use a scale to determine the priority of a call for service, commonly referred to as the PRI. This index scale was found to have the most effect on the response times, while a few cyclical patterns were obtained of level 1 variables. Neighborhood characteristics showed significant effects, measuring structural disadvantage, however, caution should be used in generalizing these findings to other public jurisdictions.
ContributorsSullivan, Eamon (Author) / Ready, Justin (Thesis advisor) / Wallace, Danielle (Committee member) / Katz, Charles (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Police use of force has become a topic of national discussion, particularly in the wake of the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Currently, the focus seems to be on individual officers and their individual attitudes and beliefs. Given that use of force is an individual decision it is intuitive to think that an officer's decision to use force would be impacted by his or her attitudes and beliefs. This reasoning ignores the larger social and organizational contexts within which police officers are situated. Specifically, an officer's peer culture and department may exert control over his or her attitudes and behaviors regarding use of force. The purpose of the current study is to determine whether these larger social contexts impact an individual's perceptions regarding use of force. Using data from a nationally representative survey sample, the study finds that individual attitudes significantly predict officers' willingness to report another officer's excessive use of force. However, this relationship weakens when including measures of peer culture and departmental influence. These findings suggest that perceptions of use of force are influenced by more than just individual attitudes towards use of force. Limitations and future research suggestions are discussed.
ContributorsMorse, Stephanie Jean (Author) / Wright, Kevin (Thesis director) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Wilson and Kelling's (1982) broken windows theory (BWT) says that disorder causes crime at the neighborhood level. More specifically, this theory posits that perceptions of disorder increase fear of crime, which then reduces community involvement, making crime more likely. Recent studies show that race plays a pivotal role in people's perceptions of disorder. In short, people tend to associate race with low socioeconomic status, high arrest rates, and lack of policing. Therefore, race plays a central role in the BWT framework as it is linked to perceptions of disorder and crime. However, ethnicity is less well understood when analyzing the perceptions of disorder. To explore this further, the current study examines Latino responses regarding safety and ethnicity to a photograph depicting a religious mural of importance for the Mexican community (La Virgen de Guadalupe). This paper qualitatively analyzes a sample of 299 survey responses of undergraduate Latino students to better understand how Latinos recognize and identify their own culture/heritage and disorder. Implications for understanding ethnicity and broken windows theory are discussed.
ContributorsEsparza, Karla N (Author) / Wallace, Danielle (Thesis director) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Lyons, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
On-officer video camera (OVC) technology in the field of policing is developing at a rapid pace. Large agencies are beginning to adopt the technology on a limited basis, and a number of cities across the United States have required their police departments to adopt the technology for all first responders. Researchers have just begun to examine its effects on citizen complaints, officers' attitudes, and street-level behavior. To date, however, there is no research examining how departmental policy and assignment of officers to a camera program affect officer behavior and opinions of the cameras. Policy and assignment have the potential to impact how officers react to the technology and can affect their interactions with citizens on a daily basis. This study measures camera activations by line officers in the Mesa Police Department during police-citizen encounters over a ten-month period. Data from 1,675 police-citizen contacts involving camera officers were subject to analysis. Net of controls (i.e., the nature of the crime incident, how it was initiated, officer shift, assignment, presence of bystanders and backup, and other situational factors), the bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to examine how departmental policy (mandatory versus discretionary activation policy) and officer assignment (voluntary versus mandatory assignment) affected willingness to activate the cameras, as well as officer and citizen behavior during field contacts.
ContributorsRoy, Allyson (Author) / Ready, Justin (Thesis advisor) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Fox, Kate (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014