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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
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
Body-worn cameras and early intervention systems have become best practices for police departments. A wide body of empirical work has examined body-worn cameras, and there is a growing focus on early intervention systems. However, little research has examined how these mechanisms of accountability influence officer behavior when employed together. Further, little attention has explored whether the effects of body-worn cameras and early intervention systems are stable by officer gender and race, important and largely untested assumptions of each program. To address these gaps, the current study uses longitudinal, administrative data from the Phoenix Police Department to examine patrol officer misconduct between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2020. Generalized estimating equation models predict seven alleged and sustained misconduct outcomes, including police crime, use of force, harassment/conduct unbecoming, obstruction of justice, neglect of duty, traffic-related, and an overall measure of misconduct. The findings revealed that body-worn camera implementation and activation and early intervention system implementation and referrals individually and in combination were associated with very few substantive changes in officer misconduct. Increases in body-worn camera activation were associated with reductions in sustained police crime (i.e., felonies and misdemeanors), while officers who received an early intervention system referral were more likely to be alleged of police crime in the future. These findings were stable by officer gender and race. Further, past work demonstrates that implementing accountability programs can lead officers to less self-initiated engagement with the public. The current study reaffirmed that body-worn cameras and early intervention systems have unintended effects on officers’ proactive behaviors with unique changes in arrests, citations, and self-initiated incidents across accountability program measures. Given the importance of addressing officer misconduct to build and maintain community trust, the rapid expansion of body-worn cameras and early intervention systems across the United States, and the cost of these systems, it is vital that police departments consider the accountability programs they implement and whether and how these programs influence officer behavior. The current study provides insight into this process in one police agency and offers policy implications and directions for future research.
ContributorsFreemon, Kayla (Author) / Katz, Charles (Thesis advisor) / Wallace, Danielle (Committee member) / Huebner, Beth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
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