Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Public Perceptions Of Police Interactions With Juveniles, Jillian Orr

Honors Program Theses and Projects

While previous research shows how different people respond differently to situations regarding police use of force on juveniles (Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, etc) this paper delves into what aspect each person has that influences the way they feel the police officer should respond to a juvenile suspect. I surveyed a group of about 300 people and asked them to give their responses to a vignette in which they were the acting police officer. Then, I analyzed the public opinion results through the lens of authoritarianism and compared them to the variables of age, gender, employment, and education.

Differences In Psychopathy And Associated Traits By Police Officer Rank, Rosanne Libretti

Student Theses

Most psychopathy research focuses on its manifestation in forensic populations, however these results may not generalize onto noncriminal, or “successful,” psychopaths. Lykken (1995) conjectured that socialization may enable “heroes,” like law enforcement, to utilize the interpersonal and affective aspects of psychopathy in a manner that benefits society. Previous research (Falkenbach et al., 2018a) suggests that psychopathy and its correlates differ between police recruits and individuals in the community. It is necessary to continue this work with other groups in the police force to see if the patterns found in these studies generalize to veteran officers who have worked in law …

Badges And Bongs: Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Drugs, Cody Jorgensen

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

For unknown reasons, the research investigating police officers’ attitudes toward drug use is underdeveloped. One study, by Wilson, Cullen, Latessa, and Wills, has directly investigated police officers’ perceptions toward general vice crimes (including drug use) and perceived appropriate sanctions for committing these offenses. This article built upon that study. A survey measuring officers’ attitudes toward drugs was developed and used to gather data from a large metropolitan police department in the South. Responding officers displayed fairly serious and punitive attitudes toward drug offenses. In addition, they reported an interventionist attitude, believing that more can and should be done to control …

The Noble Mentoring Potential Ceos Program: A Process To Develop Chiefs Of Police, Patrick Oliver

History and Government Faculty Publications

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) established a mentoring program for aspiring chief executive officers (CEOs) in July 2006 called the Mentoring Potential Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) Program. The concept is a mentoring model that will prepare law enforcement executives for leadership positions and improve their chances of effectively leading a law enforcement agency. Furthermore, the program’s primary goal is to help minority law enforcement aspiring executives overcome professional development and career progression challenges.

Willingness To Speak In The Context Of Police Use Of Force, Rachel Italiano

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Police use of force has become a common phrase in the current United States society, especially in the context of law enforcement encounters with Black men. However, even with extensive media coverage of protests and incidents between police and Blacks, not much is known about peoples’ willingness to speak out about the topic. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann’s spiral of silence theory, which states that peoples’ perceptions of others and media exposure is largely responsible for determining an individual’s willingness to speak, is uniquely positioned to examine this topic. This study utilized a Qualtrics panel of 905 participants and a questionnaire to examine …

What Do We Know About In-Service Police Training? Results Of A Failed Systematic Review, Laura Huey

Sociology Publications

To learn more about what the social scientific research literature can tell us about ‘what works’ in the field of in-service police training, the author attempted to conduct a systematic review of the recent published research on this topic (2000-2015). After initially narrowing the search results to 21 studies, the review had to be abandoned because there was an insufficient number of studies on any one topic or training technique. The author reflects on what this failed review means from the standpoint of the possible economic and social costs of potentially ineffective and inefficient in-service training.

Police Officer Perspectives On Public Views Of Police, Current Events Involving Police, And The Impact On Police-Community Relationships, Donjae Catanzariti

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The media has presented current tensions between police officers and the communities they serve, particularly the Black community. These tensions have led to calls for reforms in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. However, there has been little focus on the police perspective. Thus, this study sought to address the gaps in the literature by shedding light on the perspective of police officers through the following research question: a) How do police officers perceive the public’s view of them? b) How do police officers’ think the public’s view of them impacts the relationship between police officers and the communities …

"If You Stand On This Corner, People Know What You're About": Powerful Geographies Of Airline & Goodwood In #Justiceforalton, Shannon Kathleen Groll

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the multiple geographies of Airline & Goodwood, a site of protest occupied nightly during a part of summer 2016 in response to the police shooting of Alton Sterling. Through a methodology of observant-participation, interviews, and oral histories, I make the case that the politics of this site differed from other contemporaneous protest sites in the city through specific place-making activity which highlighted the site’s powerful contemporary and historical geographies. I connect protest at this site to the precarity of Black life and death in Baton Rouge through interviews and oral histories which discuss the historical …

Badges And Brothels: Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Prostitution, Cody Jorgensen

Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is a gap in the literature regarding police officers’ attitudes about vice, specifically prostitution. Scholars should study this topic because police are interacting with drug dealers and drug users, prostitutes, and Johns, and gamblers and bookies regularly. Additionally, how police perceive prostitution is likely to influence how they enforce laws prohibiting it. This paper presents survey items measuring police officers’ attitudes about prostitution related offenses and examines the relationships between officers’ attitudes toward prostitution and their personal as well as professional characteristics. Responding officers displayed fairly serious and punitive attitudes toward prostitution offenses. Respondents believed that prostitution was a …

Asphalt Magnolias: Women In Southern State Police And Highway Patrol Agencies, 1972-2012, Genevieve May

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Women are under-represented in both numbers and at the command level of police agencies after over 40 years of women in policing. The national average for women in policing, as reported by the 2012 Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report, was 11.9%. Women in state police and highway patrol agencies are well below the national average, particularly in the southern states where the percentage is below 6%. This study uses qualitative data to examine the role of gender and the gendered organizational structure and culture of police agencies through interview data from 24 women troopers and one academy cadet …

Police Interventions, Public Perceptions, And The Rdfc Interaction Model, Stacey L. Clouse

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Procedural justice and police legitimacy research suggests that perceptions of legitimacy are based on the credibility of police (Sunshine & Tyler, 2003). However, highly publicized incidents of police use of force serve to threaten that credibility. High profile incidents between police and citizens in Black communities have contributed to national protests and, as some data suggest, increased violence toward the police (FBI.gov, 2016). Extensive media coverage of these incidents has contributed to an increased sensitivity toward police- citizen interactions leading to incidents of civil unrest (Weitzer, 2002). The incidents of civil unrest suggest that we should more closely examine factors …

Trust And Confidence: Law Enforcement And The Deaf Community, Nicole Mills

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

The purpose of this study is to highlight the factors that influence police legitimacy in students’ eyes. This study tests process-based model (view of police based on citizens’ experiences or sharing of experiences) hypotheses using data from 98 deaf/HH students from Gallaudet University, who successfully completed an online questionnaire. This study aims at describing correlations and regressions between police legitimacy and the identified significant factors (Perceived Police’s Compliance with the Law, Procedural Justice, Police Effectiveness, Moral Credibility, and Cooperation with the Police) which may determine legitimacy of the police. The imperative questions that this study seeks to address are: (1) …

The Exceptional Negro: Racism, White Privilege And The Lie Of Respectability Politics, Traci Ellis

Publications & Research

Overwhelmingly, black folks have close encounters on a regular basis with being marginalized, insulted, dismissed and discriminated against. It is the natural consequence of still being considered little more than a Negro in this country. Especially for the “Exceptional Negroes.” But, as we will see, the truth is that even with our exceptionalism, we are still just “Negroes” to white America and in case we forget that, they will swiftly remind us.

Effects Of Stereotype Threat On Black And White Individuals’ Verbal Responses In Police Encounters, Samantha N. Strine

Psychology

I examined whether Black and White individuals have different verbal behaviors in police encounters and, if so, whether stereotype threat explains these differences. This question is important because police officers use certain verbal behaviors as evidence of deception. Thus, unconscious behaviors arising from concern about being stereotyped as a criminal could cause Black men to be perceived by police as suspicious and, in turn, contribute to discrepancies in police treatment of Black versus White men. In this study, Black and White men interacted with a White security officer in a staged encounter that varied in stereotype relevance (low or high). …

Policing For The Community, Jeffrey Munoz

Senior Honors Projects

As a society, we are currently in a period of time where the community reflects their dissatisfaction with law enforcement by staging protests, organizing groups who demand change and unfortunately at times displaying a degree of violence towards authority. These issues are products of controversial police shootings like those of the killings of Tamir rice, Freddie Gray and Eric Garner in which all demonstrated a reasonable degree of uncertainty. The fact of the matter lies within the officers’ actions as they manifest an inherent racial bias seen one to many times by populations that have been oppressed throughout history. The …

Examining Police Officer Resistance To Change And Body-Worn Cameras, Wayne R. Jakobitz Jr.

Ed.D. Dissertations

Police departments are adopting the body-worn camera as an important tool in the restoration of trust and accountability for police officers. Although body-worn cameras can be beneficial to their work, police officers might resist the use of cameras. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether experiences with technology or the perceived usefulness of body-worn cameras predict resistance to the cameras in order to determine where resistance to body-worn cameras possibly exists. The current study employed a quantitative design that examined 48 (n = 48) police officers’ responses about resistance to body-worn cameras in relationship to the …

The Bravest Woman I Know, Alexa Laboy

SURGE

On Friday, April 20, 2018, Gettysburg College students organized a campus-wide walkout to protest all forms of gun violence as part of Gettysburg College’s first annual Peace and Justice Week. Over the next several days, SURGE published the poems and personal testimonies of the student speakers who participated in the event.

Just imagine witnessing your best friend’s boyfriend beating her, beating their children.

What would you do?

My sister is the bravest woman I know. She came in between the blows to her best friend’s face and his fists. My sister is scared of nothing and of no one, which …

I Have Not Lost Someone To Gun Violence, Mattelyn R. Wadley

SURGE

On Friday, April 20, 2018, Gettysburg College students organized a campus-wide walkout to protest all forms of gun violence as part of Gettysburg College’s first annual Peace and Justice Week. Over the next several days, SURGE published the poems and personal testimonies of the student speakers who participated in the event.

I have not lost someone to gun violence, but

When I hear the word gun…

I still picture children’s bodies lying lifeless on the floor of a blue-carpeted classroom [excerpt]

Gettysburg Against Gun Violence, Chentese Stewart

SURGE

On April 4th, the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Saheed Vassell, a 34 year old black man, was shot nine times and killed in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY. Plain clothes police officers responded to several calls complaining of a man walking through the streets pointing gun at people. They later found out that Saheed was unarmed, and the object in his hand was merely a showerhead.

Saheed had a history of mental illness, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder years prior. He was well known by longtime residents of the neighborhood who described him …

You Have Seventy-Two Hours: How The City Complaint System Enables Criminalization Of The Unsheltered Population, Lindsey Grace Earl

Theses and Dissertations

The unsheltered population has been denigrated since the formation of the United States. This is true in a city I call Marinville, Illinois where the privatization paradigm, social stratification, and anti-homeless ordinances have contributed to the shutdown of at least five homeless encampments. Multiple times per week, law enforcement officials interact with the chronically unsheltered population and incarcerate individuals for petty ordinance violations. In our current regulatory system, city officials, police officers, and homeless service organizations (HSOs) all influence the unsheltered population’s lives, including options for social and spatial mobility. This thesis is based on multi-method research from 2016-2017: engaging …

Policing The Drinking Community: An Assessment Of The Criminal Justice Response To Drunk Driving And Alcohol Related Crashes (1985 -2014), Richard James Stringer

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to analyze the relationships among arrests, informal alcohol related social norms, and alcohol related fatal crashes in the U.S. from 1985-2014. Despite inexorable efforts to eliminate drunk driving, approximately twenty percent of the population drives after drinking (Drew, 2010). Although law enforcement arrests play a key part in policies to deter drunk driving, enforcement of DUI laws varies widely across the country (Erickson et al., 2015). However, no project has explored the relationship between structural factors related to community norms, enforcement, and automobile crashes. Thus, this project adds to the literature and understanding of …

Female Law Enforcement Officer's Experiences Of Workplace Harassment, Vanessa Brodeur

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Prior research shows that female police officers experience more incidents of harassment than male police officers, and these experiences of harassment have been shown to have negative effects on their mental and physical health, retention, and job satisfaction. The current study examined the experiences of harassment of 20 female police officers from agencies around Southern California. A survey interview was used, and it was found that none of the women had experienced quid pro quo harassment, but every woman recalled experiencing environmental harassment at some point throughout their career. Hostility towards women was more commonly experienced than harassment which was …

Theoretical Implementation Of A Police Officer Suicide Prevention Program, Abby Lokkesmoe

The Kabod

Since 1990, the Los Angeles Police Department has lost 52 of its valuable officers: 30 of these were killed in the line of duty, and a stunning 22 (42.31%) took their own lives. While the reasons why these officers ended their lives prematurely vary, the implications of their deaths remain the same; it is of paramount importance to take action to address this problem. This department has made efforts in recent years to decrease the number of police officer suicides, but the officers who have taken their own lives since then are a testament to the failure of those efforts. …

Investigating Perceptions Of Race And Ethnic Diversity Among Prospective Police Officers, Natalie Todak, Jessica Huff, Lois James

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Many have suggested police diversity will improve police-community relations, but research testing this hypothesis is inconclusive. We investigated perceptions of police race, ethnicity, and diversity in a heterogeneous sample of prospective police officers. Data are drawn from interviews with 42 criminal justice college students in the Southwestern United States, of which 15 were Hispanic, and who each wanted to become a police officer. Participants supported diversity in policing, and collectively expressed a belief that race plays a central role in policing today. Furthermore, participants expressed support for the ideals of both passive and active representative bureaucracy. Hispanics in the sample …

Between A Rock And A Hard Place: The Black Middle Class And Mass Incarceration, Bill Byrnes

Dissertations

The United States is the world leader in incarceration. Mass incarceration does not affect all racial groups equally; research literature shows that people of color, but especially Black people in the working and lower classes, face the brunt of policing and incarceration in this country. In Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Black Middle Class and Mass Incarceration, I examine how mass incarceration affects those who are not poor by comparing and contrasting the experiences of middle-class White and Black respondents using data collected from focus groups and one-on-one interviews. Although Black and White respondents sometimes shared similar …

Suspicion, Suspicion: Police Perceptions Of Juveniles As The “Symbolic Assailant”, Andrea R. Coleman

School of Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

Jerome Skolnick’s (2011) "symbolic assailant" is a result of police attributing particular demeanor, gestures, language, and a style of dress to people they believed were most likely to commit violent crimes. The challenge became when police applied these characteristics to specific groups such as juveniles. Literature published before and after Skolnick (2011) indicated police were more likely to stop, arrest, interrogate, or surveille juveniles based on their demeanor, gestures, style of dress, lack of respect, deference to authority, the severity, and remorse for their offenses in addition to race. However, current research indicated race, gender, and Socioeconomic Status (SES) determined …

Community Trust Building And The Elgin Police, Frank Trost

All Capstone Projects

This study focused on police and community trust and how it may be affected by one’s sense of community. The idea of sense of community has been compared to school spirit. There has been little research that examines if sense of community influences trust in their police. A quantitative study was conducted utilizing an online survey. The location was the city of Elgin, Illinois. Its purpose was to determine what level of sense of community the respondents had and what level of trust they had in the police overall and the Elgin police specifically. The study resulted in 637 respondents …

Elder Affairs Officers In Rhode Island: An Exploratory Descriptive Study, Kelsey Harrington

Justice Studies Theses

This paper examines the current state and perceived effectiveness of the Elder Affairs Officer system in Rhode Island, with an additional focus on identifying how current practice might be improved. To the author's knowledge, this is the first systematic study of this issue. Participants in the study were Elder Affairs Officers from police departments around Rhode Island. A survey was used to allow officers to share their experiences and opinions of the current system. Results of this study include participants' positive view of multi-disciplinary teams and the need for increased training in Rhode Island. Recommendations for training and implementation of …

Law Enforcement Formal Academic Educational Hiring Requirements And Deputy Sheriff Disciplinary Issues, Chase Dennis Wetherington

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is a lack of research as to what impacts law enforcement disciplinary issues. This is important due to the recent emphasis of officer performance and accountability. In 2008, the Southeast Sheriff's Office (SSO) increased their formal academic educational hiring requirement from a high school diploma to 60 college credits. The impact of this increase has never been analyzed. The purpose of this study was to determine through the theoretical lens of Kohlberg's 6 stages of moral development if an increase in the formal academic educational requirement influenced the number of deputy sheriff disciplinary issues. A quantitative nonexperimental study was …

Police Stress: An Analysis Of The Impact On Child Sexual Exploitation Investigators, Damon Landon Simmons

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The psychological and physiological effects of work-related stress on law enforcement causes high morbidity and mortality rates and rates of alcoholism, substance abuse, domestic violence, and suicide higher than the national average. The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was to examine whether work-related stress experienced by child sexual exploitation (CSE) and child sexual abuse (CSA) investigators differ from that of other duty assigned subgroups. I used Karasek's job demands-control model as the theoretical framework for this study. I conducted the study within a medium sized law enforcement agency in eastern Washington State. The sample in the quantitative study …