Matching Items (6)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Use of Force
- All Subjects: Police misconduct
- Creators: White, Michael D.
Description
Police misconduct is a relatively rare event, though typically, it is a male dominated event. As such, research on police misconduct has largely ignored women. Generally, research examines differences in misconduct by using sex as a control variable, or has focused on small samples of female officers using qualitative methods. Neither of these methods is able to explore or explain the possibility that factors related to officers' decisions to commit misconduct may differentially impact males and females. As a consequence, we are left with a shallow understanding of when and why women commit misconduct.
This research fills this gap by a large sample (N=3,085) of matched police officers in the New York City Police Department, half of which committed career-ending misconduct between 1975 and 1996. Additionally, unlike previous research, this data includes a large sample (N=435) of females. Research has determined that some factors, such as having children or employment problems, are risk factors for misconduct regardless of sex; likewise, other factors, such as age and higher education, create protection against misconduct. Using logistic regression and split-sample z-score comparisons, analyses will focus on examining how the predictors differentially explain the likelihood of police misconduct for men and women.
As expected, some predictors of misconduct that are salient for women, such as getting divorced, are not statistically significant for men; likewise, some variables that are significant for both men and women have a larger effect size for one sex, such as citizen complaints, which are of more predictive value for women than for men. These findings yield important theoretical, empirical, and policy implications. Notably, there is evidence that a gendered theory of police misconduct may be necessary. Additionally, conceptualizations within mainstream criminological theories may need to be rethought; for example, divorce was found to be a protective factor for women in this study, rather than a risk factor as both strain and life-course criminology would indicate. The findings also demonstrate the need for gender-specific models when studying police misconduct. Finally, the results of this study yield important policy implications, such as the utility of gender-specific hiring considerations and early-intervention "red flags."
This research fills this gap by a large sample (N=3,085) of matched police officers in the New York City Police Department, half of which committed career-ending misconduct between 1975 and 1996. Additionally, unlike previous research, this data includes a large sample (N=435) of females. Research has determined that some factors, such as having children or employment problems, are risk factors for misconduct regardless of sex; likewise, other factors, such as age and higher education, create protection against misconduct. Using logistic regression and split-sample z-score comparisons, analyses will focus on examining how the predictors differentially explain the likelihood of police misconduct for men and women.
As expected, some predictors of misconduct that are salient for women, such as getting divorced, are not statistically significant for men; likewise, some variables that are significant for both men and women have a larger effect size for one sex, such as citizen complaints, which are of more predictive value for women than for men. These findings yield important theoretical, empirical, and policy implications. Notably, there is evidence that a gendered theory of police misconduct may be necessary. Additionally, conceptualizations within mainstream criminological theories may need to be rethought; for example, divorce was found to be a protective factor for women in this study, rather than a risk factor as both strain and life-course criminology would indicate. The findings also demonstrate the need for gender-specific models when studying police misconduct. Finally, the results of this study yield important policy implications, such as the utility of gender-specific hiring considerations and early-intervention "red flags."
ContributorsGaub, Janne Elizabeth (Author) / Holtfreter, Kristy (Thesis advisor) / White, Michael D. (Committee member) / Wallace, Danielle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The effectiveness of police behavior on criminal activity has improved over the last thirty years. Yet, some police practices remain ineffective against crime. Because there is the potential for disconnect between their behavior and crime control, the police's legitimacy is threatened. Legitimacy is important because its acquisition is requisite for any organization to exist. Police therefore look to other sources of legitimacy, such as their institutional environment: The network of agencies who share similar challenges, and the collection of entities that influence the form and function of the police (e.g., sovereigns). When the police consider the practices and expectations of their institutional environment through the process of isomorphism, agencies resemble one another despite idiosyncratic exigencies. This process endows them with legitimacy. Largely studied at the interorganizational level, isomorphism can also apply at the intraorganizational level. This study considers the latter level of analysis. Because the study of isomorphism in policing has lacked empirical assessment, the current study borrowed from the field of spatial analysis. This is feasible insofar as police behavior can be understood territorially, including isomorphic processes. By controlling for the most pertinent territorial predictors of police behavior, spatial dependence can be understood as the manifestation of isomorphism. Further, local indicators of spatial autocorrelation in interaction with spatial dependence can be understood as the institutional influence of sovereigns. Considerable attention is spent elaborating these concepts. Across four dependent variables (juvenile arrests made by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 2008 for violent crime, property crime, drug crime, and gun crime), isomorphic processes were overwhelmed by ecological variables for three criteria. For juvenile drug arrests, the behavior of distinct areal units was influenced by several sovereign entities from within the police department. Methodologically, this study introduces a novel empirical way of exploring isomorphism. Theoretically, it enriches the study of isomorphism by introducing the importance of territoriality. In terms of police practice, it suggests an innovative method for police organizational change, a process that is typified by resistance. By engaging sovereign entities in the change process, this resistance can be overcome in a naturally occurring ecological phenomenon.
ContributorsCooper, Jonathon A., 1982- (Author) / White, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Rodriguez, Nancy (Committee member) / Katz, Charles (Committee member) / Kane, Robert J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This dissertation integrates concepts from three bodies of literature: police use of force, neighborhood/ecological influence on police, and police culture. Prior research has generally found that neighborhood context affects police use of force. While scholars have applied social disorganization theory to understand why neighborhood context might influence use of force, much of this theorizing and subsequent empirical research has focused exclusively on structural characteristics of an area, such as economic disadvantage, crime rates, and population demographics. This exclusive focus has occurred despite the fact that culture was once an important component of social disorganization theory in addition to structural factors. Moreover, the majority of the theorizing and subsequent research on police culture has neglected the potential influence that neighborhood context might have on officers’ occupational outlooks. The purpose of this dissertation is to merge the structural and cultural elements of social disorganization theory in order to shed light on the development and maintenance of police officer culture as well as to further specify the relationship between neighborhood context and police use of force. Using data from the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN), I address three interrelated research questions: 1) does variation of structural characteristics at the patrol beat level, such as concentrated disadvantage, homicide rates, and the percentage of minority citizens, predict how an officer views his/her occupational outlook (i.e., culture)?; 2) do officers who work in the same patrol beats share a similar occupational outlook (i.e., culture) or is there variation?; and 3) does the inclusion of police culture at the officer level moderate the relationship between patrol beat context and police use of force? Findings suggest that a patrol beat’s degree of concentrated disadvantage and homicide rate slightly influence officer culture at the individual level. Results show mixed evidence of a patrol beat culture. There is little support for the idea that characteristics of the patrol beat and individual officer culture interact to influence police use of force. I conclude with a detailed discussion of the methodological, theoretical, and policy implications as well as limitations and directions for future research.
ContributorsShjarback, John (Author) / White, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Wallace, Danielle M. (Committee member) / Katz, Charles M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
There is demand for police reform in the United States to reduce use of force and bias, and to improve police-citizen relationships. Many believe de-escalation should be a more central feature of police training and practice. It is suggested that improving officers’ communication and conflict resolution skills will temper police-citizen interactions and reduce police use of force, and that such a change will improve citizen trust in the police. To date, however, de-escalation training has not spread widely across agencies, and de-escalation as a strategy has not been studied. Without an evidence-based understanding of these concepts, de-escalation training will proceed blindly, if at all. Accordingly, this dissertation represents one of the first empirical studies of de-escalation in police work. The author completed this study as an embedded researcher in the Spokane (WA) Police Department, and it proceeds in two parts. Part 1 was exploratory and qualitative, consisting of in-depth interviews (N=8) and a focus group (N=1) with eight highly skilled police de-escalators. These officers were nominated by peers as the best among them at de-escalating difficult encounters with citizens. The results in Part 1 explore officers’ perceptions of de-escalation and offer a definition of de-escalation as well as a description of de-escalation tactics. In Part 2, the author systematically observed the concepts developed in part 1 during 35 ride-alongs with 29 police officers, including the peer nominated officers (N=131 police-citizen encounters). This phase of the research investigated whether characteristics of officers, citizens, and situations are associated with de-escalation use, and de-escalation effectiveness. Implications from these findings are drawn for police practice, theory, and research methods. This dissertation is a launching point for empirical research on de-escalation in police work.
ContributorsTodak, Natalie Erin (Author) / White, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott H. (Committee member) / Terrill, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Prior ethnographic research has found some relatively consistent factors that influence an officer’s use of force (e.g., organizational and suspect and officer characteristics). However, very little research has explored the effect department size in and of itself may have on force displayed during a police/citizen encounter. This study used data from the 2010 – 2013 Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network (AARIN) to examine the relationship between departmental size and officer use of force. Participants in this data collection cycle were limited to adult male and female arrestees (N = 2,273). AARIN personnel conducted confidential interviews and used a Police-Contact Addendum to document the type of forced employed by police during their current arrest. This study sought to answer the following research question: does the likelihood of an officer employing use of force increase (or decrease) in relation to department size the officer is nested in? The results indicate that citizens who are arrested by officers from a larger agency are more likely to report experiencing use of force during their arrest when compared to those arrested by officers from small and medium sized agencies.
ContributorsGalvin-White, Christine Marie (Author) / Wallace, Danielle (Thesis advisor) / White, Michael D. (Committee member) / Fradella, Hank F. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Police use of excessive force is under constant scrutiny. Recent high-profile killings of unarmed Black individuals have bolstered calls for reform regarding police use of force. De-escalation has been recommended as a solution to help police reduce their use of force and help repair community relations. However, there is much that we still do not know about de-escalation: What is it exactly? What are de-escalation tactics? Which are considered the most effective? By examining a group of peer-nominated top de-escalators in the Tempe (AZ) Police Department, this dissertation serves to uncover the black box of de-escalation. This in-depth case study of top de-escalators is presented in three parts. Part 1 utilized data from an officer perception survey (N=101). The perceptions of the officers were categorized into three groups: 1) the importance of de-escalation tactics, 2) the frequency of these de-escalation tactics, and 3) the perceptions of de-escalation training. The results in Part 1 highlight which tactics top de-escalators view as most important and which tactics they report using more frequently. Additionally, differences between the top de-escalators and their peers were examined. In Part 2, the author utilized data via systematic social observation of body-worn camera footage (N=228 coded interactions). The behaviors of the officers were categorized into three groups: 1) objectively observable de-escalation tactics, 2) “to-do’s” tactics, and 3) “do not’s” tactics. This phase of the study examined what de-escalation tactics top de-escalators were observed using most frequently (or least) and how they differed from their peers. In Part 3, the author utilized data from a social network question that was administered alongside the officer perception survey (N=64). This phase of the research examined if top de-escalators were perceived as more influential than their peers regarding de-escalation. The empirical, methodological, theoretical, and practical implications of these findings are also discussed.
ContributorsMora, Victor Javier (Author) / White, Michael D. (Thesis advisor) / Young, Jacob T.N. (Committee member) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023