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The Politicization Of Crime And Its Implications, Komysha Hassan

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

The relationship between law enforcement and the public has recently come under scrutiny after a number of high-profile deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police officers. The ensuing public outcry has given way to a wide-ranging debate about the origins of such tension and why it has continued to manifest with such vigor despite apparent progress. This research attempts to uncover the underpinnings of this tension through a historical review of the development of the law enforcement institution and the narrative of crime in society. Specifically, this research investigates the role of federalization and politicization on crime and its …

Officer-Involved Deaths In Nevada 2013-2019, Madison Frazee-Bench, Yanneli Llamas, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

Between 2013 and 2019, 7,669 people were killed by police officers across the United States. Using data compiled by Mapping Police Violence, a non-profit research and advocacy project tracking incidents of police violence throughout the U.S., this fact sheet focuses on officer-involved deaths in the State of Nevada between January 2013 and December 2019.

Improving Community Safety Means Addressing Police Violence As A Public Health Problem, Kami Chavis, Josh Horwitz

Popular Media

JURIST Guest Columnists from the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence Kami Chavis, a law professor at Wake Forest University, and Josh Horwitz, the Fund's executive director, discuss ways to address systemic police violence against people of color.

Psychopathy And Police Officers: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of The Relationship Between Psychopathic Traits And Police Work Across Temporal Factors, Hunter N. Moore

Student Theses

It’s estimated that psychopathic personalities constitute about 1% of the general population but is seen at elevated rates in particularly stressful and harsh environments (Babiak & Hare, 2006; Hare, 1996). A career in law enforcement is one known to be uniquely stressful (Lucas et al., 2012), and the trauma from their career seems to be having an impact on their personality (Wills & Schuldberg, 2016). While psychopathy traits have been reported in police officers (Próchniak, 2012), these traits have yet to be assessed as a function of time. The current study explores these relationships by assessing psychopathy traits, as measured …

Civil Rights Ecosystems, Joanna C. Schwartz

Michigan Law Review

The Philadelphia and Houston Police Departments are similarly sized, but over a recent two-year period, ten times more civil rights suits were filed against Philadelphia and its officers than were filed against Houston and its officers. Plaintiffs in cases brought against Philadelphia and its officers were awarded one hundred times more in settlements and judgments. What accounts for these differences? Although the frequency and severity of misconduct and injury may play some role, I contend that the volume and outcome of civil rights litigation against any given jurisdiction should be understood as a product of what I call its civil …

Covid-19 And The Conundrum Of Mask Requirements, Robert Gatter, Seema Mohapatra

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

As states begin to loosen their COVID-19 restrictions, public debate is underway about what public health measures are appropriate. Many states have some form of mask-wearing orders to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection. Public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization has conflicted. From a public health point of view, it is not clear what the right answer is. In the absence of directives, individuals are also making their own choices about mask use. At a time when public health measures, like shelter-in-place orders and social distancing, are being used to …

Animal Assisted Therapy On Law Enforcement Mental Health: A Therapy Dog Implementation Guide, Melena Purvis

Honors Projects

The mental health of law enforcement officers is an ever increasing problem, with our nation’s police officers seeing a constant increase in things like PTSD, depression, and other mental illnesses. However, mental health is already a highly stigmatized topic that is not commonly addressed, and a police subculture of strength and toughness just reinforces that stigma and makes it that much harder for police officers struggling with these issues to get help. This project combines innovation with research to come up with a way to try and improve the mental health of those officers struggling. It provides a manual for …

College Students’ Attitudes Towards Police Officers And Their Perceptions Of Prison Systems, Lee Poff

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current research seeks to study and gauge current perceptions of police among college students at East Tennessee State University. As well as studying perceptions of police among students, the research will compare police perceptions among students with student opinions on incarceration. Correlations will be attempted to be observed through various demographical characteristics and similar standardized viewpoints. This will build on prior research from Lim (2015) and others in which college students were used to gauge results around perceptions of police. It is important to understand college student perceptions on police and incarceration as they form the future work force …

Thoughts And Opinions On Police Intervention On Domestic Violence, Magdalene Thebaud

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Historically, the criminal justice system was highly criticized for dismissing the intimate violence reports. Many lawsuits were filed against the police for not responding to victim’s police reports. It is important to consider the victim’s opinions on intimate partner violence interventions when deciding what it effective or not. Policy research should implement more victim focused resources and laws that would allow victims to safely leave abusive relationships. Being mindful of the evidence this study should encourage policy makers to consider the police intervention of intimate partner violence. This research could provide statistics showing that police intervention is causing retaliation and …

Public Matters? Comparing Decision-Making By Appointed And Elected Prosecutors In Cases Of Deadly Use-Of-Force By Police In The Hartford Judicial District And Suffolk County, Andrew E. Dubsky

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis dissects prosecutor discretion for appointed and elected prosecutors after a “catalyst” event shifts public opinion. Previous studies have shown that elected prosecutors are more likely to use discretion favoring the opinion of the public than their appointed counterparts (Bandyopadhyay 2014, Nelson 2014, and Valenti 2011). Because elected prosecutors are more likely to follow public opinion, they should also be more likely to respond to the demands of the public than their appointed counterparts. In effect, elected prosecutors are expected to be more likely to exercise discretion in their charging and prosecuting. To test this, I use the 2014 …

What Is Remembered, Alice Ristroph

Michigan Law Review

Review of Sarah A. Seo's Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom.

Public’S Perception Of Law Enforcement In Schools, Amarielis Morales

Criminology Student Work

Law Enforcement is inserted into schools all over the United States to ensure the school’s safety. Law Enforcement and community relationships are most important in developing trust between law enforcement and schools, including staff, students, and families. Once trust is established, law enforcement in schools is utilized by providing their services to better the school’s community. This research aims to get an insight into how people currently feel about law enforcement and what people would want from law enforcement in schools. Which raises the question, what does the public think about law enforcement in schools? The sample includes people above …

How Effective Are Police? The Problem Of Clearance Rates And Criminal Accountability, Shima Baughman

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the national conversation in criminal justice has centered on police. Are police using excessive force? Should they be monitored more closely? Do technology and artificial intelligence improve policing? The implied core question across these national debates is whether police are effective at their jobs. Yet we have not explored how effective police are or determined how best to measure police effectiveness.

This Article endeavors to measure how effective police are at their principal function—solving crime. The metric most commonly used to measure police effectiveness at crime-solving is a “clearance rate:” the proportion of reported crimes for which …

The Courts Encourage It, So We Do It: Police Excessive Force Against Minorities, Christopher Chapman

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

A continuing problem of American criminal justice is the frequency of violence directed against minorities by police. One cause of this is the leniency of courts, especially the Supreme Court, toward police officers accused of using excessive force. This position paper reviews the legal decisions that have granted a large degree of immunity to police in their use of force. It describes three doctrines: Qualified immunity, in which a public official is shielded from a lawsuit unless his/her actions violated a “clearly established” constitutional right; summary judgment, a judicial decision based on paper evidence without testimony; and limitations on respondeat …

How Effective Are Police? The Problem Of Clearance Rates And Criminal Accountability, Shima Baradaran Baughman

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the national conversation in criminal justice has centered on police. Are police using excessive force? Should they be monitored more closely? Do technology and artificial intelligence improve policing? The implied core question across these national debates is whether police are effective at their jobs. Yet we have not explored how effective police are or determined how best to measure police effectiveness.

This Article endeavors to measure how effective police are at their principal function—solving crime. The metric most commonly used to measure police effectiveness at crime-solving is a “clearance rate:” the proportion of reported crimes for which …

Blue Lives & The Permanence Of Racism, India Thusi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In true dystopian form, the killing of unarmed Black people by the police has sparked a national narrative about the suffering of police officers. “Blue Lives Matter” has become the rallying call for those offended by the suggestion that we should hold police officers accountable for killing unarmed Black people. According to a December 2016 poll, 61% of Americans believed that there was a “war on police,” and 68% of Whites had a favorable view of the police as compared to 40% of Blacks. Lawmakers around the country have been proposing Blue Lives Matter laws that make it a hate …

Criminal Justice Bias: Fact Or Fiction, Hiba Mobarak

Quest

Objective Analysis

Research in progress for CRIJ 1301: Introduction to Criminal Justice

Faculty Mentor: Stefanie LeMaire

The following paper represents work produced by a student in an Introduction to Criminal Justice course at Collin College. The paper is an objective analysis of prominent research regarding potential police biases and how officers’ decisions may be influenced by a suspect’s race. The topic of racial bias within policing is quite controversial, as evidenced by the community protests, media coverage, and destruction that has ensued after officer-involved shootings. This assignment asks students to objectively review scholarly research on police bias and constructively criticize …

Identifying The Best Practices That Are Being Used To Promote Higher Education In Both Civil Service And Non-Civil Service Police Departments, Raymond Trigg

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study was conducted to identify the best practices that are being used to promote higher education in both civil service and non-civil service police departments. This study also examined the higher educational incentives/policies that are currently established in municipal police departments to promote continued higher education. Factors such as tuition reimbursement, educational incentive pay, higher education standards for promotion and hiring, and rank and time of service were examined. Based on this examination, policy recommendations can be made to affect the level of education for municipal police officers positively. The organizational analysis provided a look at previously unseen aggregate …

Show Me, Don’T Tell Me: A Picturesque View Of Perceptions Of Police, Nancy Marion, Jason Twede

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

A positive relationship between law enforcement and the public is critical for the effective operation of the agency and continued safety of the community. The public’s perception of law enforcement officers is one indication of the nature of that relationship. Past research on perception of the police has used questionnaires to untangle how the public views officers. This research uses an alternative method to measure the public’s perceptions of the police by asking respondents to draw a picture of a police officer. By analyzing the drawings, it can be seen what characteristics people identify with law enforcement. This study analyzed …

A Call To Change: Rebuilding Relationships And Addressing Injustice, Brittany Pickard, Kailee Jenness, Lexi Van Surksum, Tori Conner

Student Projects

The goal of this community project was to initiate conversation and bring awareness to the gap between the local Orange City Police Department and persons of color. Through research, the organizers recognized a need for relationship rebuilding in Orange City, Iowa, and strived to do this through the means of community participation. The organizers have collected stories from community members and worked to represent individuals who have been underrepresented. Through this process, the organizers created a petition to provide tangible proof for the police department that members within the community strive to rebuild relationships and address racial injustice.

Prior Military Combat Experience And Domestic Policing Use-Of-Force Decisions, Ernesto Munoz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Use-of-force decisions are made in both the military combat and domestic policing environments. In this phenomenological study I aimed to examine what, if any, the effect of military combat experience has on domestic policing use-of-force decisions for military combat veteran police officers. Schneider and Shiffrin’s dual process of automatic and controlled processing theory offered the theoretical framework that was applied to how military combat veteran police officers may be affected by their military combat experience in the application of domestic policing use-of-force decisions. This qualitative study was designed to collect lived experiences of military combat veteran police officers who transitioned …

Key Ethical Leadership Characteristics Of State Police Promotional Candidates In The South, David Patrick Hay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Public officials, researchers, and practitioners agree police organizations need the proper tools to foster a stronger sense of ethical leadership to more effectively conduct police operations and work with communities. However, few researchers have investigated ethical leadership characteristics for police supervisors, and no research has been conducted to identify desired ethical leadership characteristics for state police supervisors in the southern United States. The purpose of this qualitative Delphi study was to determine the degrees of consensus and support of identified key ethical leadership characteristics for state police promotional candidates in the southern United States, using the theoretical framework of transformational …

Compassion Fatigue And Police Use Of Force, Amanda K. Devan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Compassion fatigue is a natural response to caring, where burnout and exhaustion result from helping professions which includes police officers. Exposure to trauma and stress increases the risk of developing compassion fatigue in helper professions and may have negative implications on overall mental health and physical well-being. However, not much is known about the behavioral effects of compassion fatigue among police officers during use-of-force incidents. The purpose of this study was to examine whether compassion fatigue in police officers is predictive of use-of- force incidents. The theoretical foundation was Figley’s theory of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Survey data were …

A Phenomenological Study: Police Officers’ Lived Experiences With The Use Of Ceds, Gustavo Alejandro Escalante

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The use of conducted energy devices (CEDs; e.g., TASER) in the U.S. has increased significantly since their endorsement by the police in the 1990s. Police administrators have struggled with CED placement in use of force continuums, and citizens have voiced concerns regarding their disproportionate use and health effects. An increase in understanding of the value of CEDs, specifically the devices’ role when used as a threat only, provides police administrators with more significant insights regarding their appropriate placement in department policies, which leads to more proportionate use by police officers. This phenomenological study explored police officers’ lived experiences involving displaying …

Stepping Into The Shoes Of The Department Of Justice: The Unusual, Necessary, And Hopeful Path The Illinois Attorney General Took To Require Police Reform In Chicago, Lisa Madigan, Cara Hendrickson, Karyn L. Bass Ehler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Unpacking The Untapped Potential Of First-Line Supervisors : Sergeants' Role In Managing Police Discretion, Danielle Leigh Reynolds

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The operational uncertainties for police work—e.g. isolation, ambiguity, contextually contingent decision-making—force police departments to push discretion down to its lowest level employees. Consequently, officers are expected to exercise independent thought and judgment in response to the challenges confronted. Yet public criticism of police often breeds from officers’ “poor” decisions and the inordinate amount of discretion they are granted. Police organizations rarely experience crises for failing to control crime, rather it is failure to control police discretion that most often threatens a department’s legitimacy. Consequently, police departments rely on supervision to limit, constrain or shape officers’ discretion so that it mirrors …

Perceptions Of Stress And Coping In The First Year Of Police Work, Scott David Eaton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The pressures associated with a career in law enforcement are considerable and often result in significant detriment to an officer's personality, behavior, and overall mental health, ultimately impacting job performance and work engagement. Although there is extensive research on the influence of stress encountered in police work, an understanding of those stressors and ways of coping in the first year of police work has yet to be fully explored. The purpose of this study was to describe the lived experiences of 5 police officers who have been subject to stress in their first year and to identify the coping skills, …

Unh Students’ Attitudes Toward University Of New Hampshire Police, Angela R. Hurley

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study examines undergraduate students from the University of New Hampshire attitudes towards campus police, specifically how student experience with campus police affects their attitudes toward them. There were a total of 113 respondents from the University of New Hampshire that answered an online survey. The survey looked specifically at the relationship between students' experience and attitudes towards UNH police, hypothesizing that students who had perceived fair encounters with campus police would be more likely to contact them in an emergency and have more positive attitudes toward them . Multivariate analysis shows perceptions of witnessing an interaction and being approached …

As Pertains To The Criminal Justice System, Is Hindsight 20/20?, Syndie G. E. Molina, Cristina Negrillo

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Race And Reasonableness In Police Killings, Jeffrey A. Fagan, Alexis D. Campbell

Faculty Scholarship

Police officers in the United States have killed over 1000 civilians each year since 2013. The constitutional landscape that regulates these encounters defaults to the judgments of the reasonable police officer at the time of a civilian encounter based on the officer’s assessment of whether threats to their safety or the safety of others requires deadly force. As many of these killings have begun to occur under similar circumstances, scholars have renewed a contentious debate on whether police disproportionately use deadly force against African Americans and other nonwhite civilians and whether such killings reflect racial bias. We analyze data on …