Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptions Of Justice And Motivations For Becoming A Police Officer: Differences Across Recruits And Law Enforcement Officers, Erika J. Waterman-Smith

Master of Science in Criminal Justice Theses & (Pre-2016) Policy Research Projects

This study examined the motivations for choosing law enforcement as a career and perceptions of different prevalent criminal justice issues among police recruits and police officers. Additionally, the motivations and perceptions were compared across recruits and officers to see if they changed over time. The purpose of this study was to see if the police subculture and socialization had an impact on their motivations and perceptions. A survey method was administered on a sample of both recruits and officers from several Southeastern police departments. Bivariate analyses indicated that there were several significant differences across recruits and police officers in their …

Police Say Leadership Is Ignoring Ptsd., Tiffany Thomas

Capstones

Nearly one in every five officer has symptoms of PTSD according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Depression, PTSD, anxiety and suicidal thoughts are all results of unmanaged stressors. These issues can have a huge impact on an officer’s physical and mental well-being, and can accumulate over the course of his or her career. As police are under fire for a series of killings of innocent black people, they believe their PTSD issues are being overlooked.

Police officers are on the front line of violence and high risk situations but the toll on their mental health is often overlooked. …

Race And Wrongful Convictions In The United States, Samuel R. Gross, Maurice Possley, Klara Stephens

Other Publications

African Americans are only 13% of the American population but a majority of innocent defendants wrongfully convicted of crimes and later exonerated. They constitute 47% of the 1,900 exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations (as of October 2016), and the great majority of more than 1,800 additional innocent defendants who were framed and convicted of crimes in 15 large-scale police scandals and later cleared in “group exonerations.” We see this racial disparity for all major crime categories, but we examine it in this report in the context of the three types of crime that produce the largest numbers …

Refinement And Preliminary Testing Of An Imagery-Based Program To Improve Coping And Performance And Prevent Trauma Among Urban Police Officers, Eamonn Arble, Mark A. Lumley, Nnamdi Pole, James Blessman, Bengt B. Arnetz

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Police officers are regularly exposed to traumatic critical incidents. The substantial mental, behavioral, and social costs of police trauma indicate a substantial need for prevention. We have refined and enhanced a previously tested Swedish program to the harsh conditions of U.S. inner cities. The program was designed to strengthen resilience during stressful encounters and teach methods of coping after exposure, thereby preventing the emergence of maladaptive symptoms and behaviors with adverse effects on professionalism. In an uncontrolled demonstration project, junior officers were trained by senior officers to engage in imaginal rehearsal of specific dangerous situations while incorporating optimal police tactics …

The Future Of Police Reform Under The Trump Administration, Kami N. Chavis

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Should We Talk?: Examining Individual And Aggregate Level Predictors Of Mediation Selection At The New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, Cynthia-Lee Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Currently, there are few studies that examine mediation programs within civilian complaint review boards. Research that analyzes these programs mainly focus on the degree of citizen satisfaction. This study adds to existing research by examining possible individual and aggregate-level characteristics linked to mediation selection. Specifically, this study considers the long standing tensions shared between the police and certain groups (e.g. minorities, youths, and residents of disadvantaged communities), and attempts to uncover which groups are more or less likely to meet with officers to resolve police complaints. The data (obtained by the CCRB and US Census 2010) allows for the analysis …

Different Not Less: An Evaluation Of The Autism Training Curriculum For The Kentucky Department Of Criminal Justice Training, Joseph Aaron Ellis

Online Theses and Dissertations

Autism spectrum disorder is one of the largest growing neurological behavioral disabilities in the United States, with a rise in diagnoses from 2012 (1 in 88) to present day (1 in 68). Studies have shown that individuals with disabilities are more likely to be victimized. Thus, the increasing diagnoses of ASD increases the chance that a victim of crime will have ASD. Police officers should have a working and growing knowledge of ASD from day one, for this reason. This exploratory study uses a literature review of autism spectrum disorder in order to develop an evaluation to analyze the curriculum …

Race And Police Power, Jamila Jefferson-Jones

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Who Should Own Police Body Camera Videos?, Laurent Sacharoff, Sarah Lustbader

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Numerous cities, states, and localities have adopted police body camera programs to enhance police accountability in the wake of repeated instances of police misconduct, as well as recent reports of more deep-seated police problems. These body camera programs hold great promise to achieve accountability, often backed by millions of dollars of federal grants.

But so far, this promise of accountability has gone largely unrealized, in part because police departments exercise near-total control over body camera programs and the videos themselves. In fact, the police view these programs chiefly as a tool of ordinary law enforcement rather than accountability — as …

Life In Hampton Roads Survey Press Release #2: Police, Race Relations And Attitudes Regarding The Homeless And Mentally Ill In Hampton Roads, Social Science Research Center, Old Dominion University

Life in Hampton Roads Survey Report

[Introductory paragraph]

This report examines regional and sub-regional perceptions of crime and police from the 2017 Life In Hampton Roads survey (LIHR 2017) conducted by the Old Dominion University Social Science Research Center. Data from prior years is also provided when available to show comparisons in responses over time. Responses were weighted by city population, race, age, gender, and phone usage (cell versus land-line) to be representative of the Hampton Roads region.

Missing Police Body Camera Videos: Remedies, Evidentiary Fairness, And Automatic Activation, Mary D. Fan

Georgia Law Review

A movement toward police regulation by recording is
sweeping the nation. Responding to calls for
accountability, transparency and better evidence,
departments have rapidly adopted body cameras.
Recording policies require the police to record more law
enforcement encounters than ever before. But what
happens if officers do not record? This is an important,
growing area of controversy. Based on the collection
and coding of police department body camera policies,
this Article reveals widespread detection and
enforcement gaps regarding failures to record as
required. More than half of the major-city departments
in the sample have no provisions specifying
consequences for not recording …

A Swot Analysis Of Community Policing As A Reform Schema For The Egyptian National Police To Counter Violent Extremism, Daniel Waddington Waddington

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Like much of the Middle East and Africa, Egypt has been experiencing increasing incidents of extremist violence and terrorism in recent years. However, an effective methodology for addressing this violence has not been identified. One approach that has been promoted internationally is countering violent extremism through community policing.

The History Of Forensic Science In The State Of New York, Elke Hof-Kenyon

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation delineates the process and advancements in professionalizing the police departments and the development of forensic science in New York. Furthermore, as a preliminary and exploratory study it examines the evolution and changes of forensic science within the growth and expansion of a New York county police department. The relationship between police and forensic science was complex; for example, the impetus for the police to adopt a particular forensic methodology varied. At times, the development of forensic methodologies necessitated a further step in professionalizing the police departments. Other times, law enforcement sought new forensic inventions, or the improvement of …

State Labor Law And Federal Police Reform, Stephen Rushin, Allison Garnett

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Bad Cops Or Bad Training? How Police Officer Training Impacts Use Of Force Incidents., Kendra Bengtson

Departmental Honors Projects

There has been growing tension between the police and public for allegations of excessive use of force, racism, and insufficient knowledge of mental illness. The purpose of this project is to examine how officers are trained to use force and what changes in training are still needed to limit using force. This project involved a comprehensive literature review on training, use of force, racial bias and mental illness. Additionally, seven in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals involved in the policing community, and four hours of use of force training and forty hours of de-escalation training were observed. This project found …

The Police-Community Partnership: Civilian Oversight As An Evaluation Tool For Community Policing., Nathan Witkin

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Citizen review boards (CRBs) tend to act as unofficial criminal courts for police misconduct. Without the binding, legal powers of the court, these civilian oversight bodies are often ineffective and draw resistance from law enforcement. “Community policing,” or community-oriented policing (COP) is a law enforcement strategy that emphasizes the use of problem-solving skills through community engagement and partnerships, but performance through arrests/citation statistics only. Without a process to evaluate public relations skills, the COP strategy encourages officers to reduce distance between them and the community while retaining a crime-fighting focus—a dynamic that increases tension and violence between police and crime-prone …

A Culture Of Silence: Exploring The Impact Of The Historically Contentious Relationship Between African-Americans And The Police, Mikah K. Thompson

Faculty Works

The relationship between African-Americans and the police has traditionally been focused on authority, control, and the enforcement of laws we now acknowledge were racially discriminatory. This historical relationship, when combined with a modern-day narrative that the police disproportionately stop, arrest, and utilize deadly force against African-Americans, has resulted in pervasive, inter-generational fear and distrust of the police. Most African-Americans view police officers not as the heroic protectors they can call upon when in need of help or the hard-hitting investigators they would trust to look into a family member’s murder. Instead, many African-Americans believe police officers have bought into the …

Fifty Years Later: Miranda & The Police, Tracy Hresko Pearl

Faculty Articles

This symposium asks us to reflect upon the fifty years after Miranda v. Arizona was handed down and to assess what impact Miranda had on law enforcement in this country. More colloquially, it asks whether, on balance, Miranda has been “good news” or “bad news” for the police. As I began to work on answering this question, however, I was troubled by the assumptions seemingly lurking within that question: (1) the assumption that Miranda has mattered at all to the police, (2) the assumption that it has mattered because it has somehow changed the behavior of police and/or the behavior …

The Effect Of Rules On Racially-Influenced Policing And Police Uses Of Force, Joe D. Mazza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Public opinion polls have shown the public lacks confidence in U.S. police to use appropriate amounts of force and treat racial minorities fairly, which undermines police legitimacy and the quality of life of all citizens. Although rules have been shown to positively constrain police uses of force, researchers have not demonstrated the effect of rules on racially influenced policing (RIP). In 2005, the RIP directive which prohibits officers from using race as a factor in taking discretionary actions was promulgated in New Jersey. The purpose of this study was to determine through the theoretical lens of Lipsky's street-level bureaucrat theory …

The Emerging American Police State: The Problem Is Not With The Police, But Higher Up, William E. Nelson

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Media Coverage Of Domestic Extremists And The Influence On Police Emotions, Jamie Porter

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The media have influenced domestic extremists who are targeting the police, and this is related to negative emotions among the police. These extremists are targeting police officers based on how events are framed by the media. In this way, the media have influenced domestic extremists' target selection and caused negative emotions among police officers because they are now the targets. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to understand the perceptions of police officers about how the media have influenced domestic extremists to target them. The narrative of this qualitative inquiry was guided by a semistructured interview sample consisting …

What We Think, What We Know And What We Think We Know About False Convictions, Samuel Gross

Articles

False convictions are notoriously difficult to study because they can neither be observed when they occur nor identified after the fact by any plausible research strategy. Our best shot is to collect data on those that come to light in legal proceedings that result in the exoneration of the convicted defendants. In May 2012, the National Registry of Exonerations released its first report, covering 873 exonerations from January 1989 through February 2012. By October 15, 2016, we had added 1,027 cases: 599 exonerations since March 1, 2012, and 428 that had already happened when we issued our initial report but …

Policing The Mentally Ill In Coronado, Ca, Jennifer Susan Ayres

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The growing number of individuals suffering from mental illnesses and their inability to access intervention methods has adverse effects on the criminal justice system. These impairments increase the likelihood that police officers will have negative attitudes about persons with mental illnesses. This study sought to understand whether police officers' empathy, education, experience outside of work as well as on the job, and officers' training in the field of mental health all related to police officers' attitudes relating to persons with mental illness. The purpose of this study was to expand the body of knowledge and determine how factors such as …

Curbing Excessive Force: A Primer On Barriers To Police Accountability, Kami N. Chavis, Conor Degnan

Faculty Publications

This Issue Brief summarizes some of the traditional mechanisms for holding police accountable for misconduct, offers a critique of each, and ends with suggestions for the future of police accountability. Part I focuses on some of the legal and structural impediments to police accountability including the inherent conflicts of interest that frequently prevent local prosecutors from prosecuting police officers accused of using excessive force. Part I also discusses how the doctrine of qualified immunity shields officers from civil liability when a suspect is harmed or dies in police custody. Part II explores how the Department of Justice (DOJ) has failed …

Dignity Is The New Legitimacy, Jeffrey A. Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

In this chapter, Jeffrey Fagan responds to Jonathan Simon’s essay by exploring the emotional dimensions of individual interactions with state actors. In a procedural justice vein, this chapter considers the dignitary implications of official maltreatment, focusing in particular on the dignity-injuring potential of unjustified, racially motivated, or otherwise abusive police stops. Such interactions not only personally humiliate, but they also deny the targeted individuals “basic and essential recognition” as social and political equals, instilling instead “a profound sense of loss.” Fagan calls for a jurisprudence that “recognizes the emotional highway between dignity and legitimacy.” This approach would “internalize[] the central …

Police Contact And Mental Health, Amanda Geller, Jeffrey Fagan, Tom R. Tyler

Faculty Scholarship

Although an effective police presence is widely regarded as critical to public safety, less is known about the effects of police practices on mental health and community wellbeing. Adolescents and young adults in specific neighborhoods of urban areas are likely to experience assertive contemporary police practices. This study goes beyond research on policing effects on legal socialization to assess the effects of police contact on the mental health of those stopped by the police. We collected and analyzed data in a two wave survey of young men in New York City (N=717) clustered in the neighborhoods with the highest rates …

Police Officers' Perceptions Of Social Media's Involvement On Delinquent Behavior By Juveniles, Rachel K. Wisnefski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The rapid growth of social media platforms coupled with the technological savviness of juveniles has led to their delinquent behavior involving social media. Researchers should investigate this phenomenon in order to establish its extent and to minimize the harmful effects this behavior may have. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate and explore potential connections between social media and delinquent acts committed by juvenile offenders through the use of police officers' perceptions of those types of acts. The primary research question focused on determining what the perceptions and experiences of police officers in a southeastern state were relative …

Knowledge And Fourth Amendment Privacy, Matthew Tokson

Northwestern University Law Review

This Article examines the central role that knowledge plays in determining the Fourth Amendment’s scope. What people know about surveillance practices or new technologies often shapes the “reasonable expectations of privacy” that define the Fourth Amendment’s boundaries. From early decisions dealing with automobile searches to recent cases involving advanced information technologies, courts have relied on assessments of knowledge in a wide variety of Fourth Amendment contexts. Yet the analysis of knowledge in Fourth Amendment law is rarely if ever studied on its own.

This Article fills that gap. It starts by identifying the characteristics of Fourth Amendment knowledge. It finds, …

Effective Social Media Use By Law Enforcement Agencies: A Case Study Approach To Quantifying And Improving Efficacy And Developing Agency Best Practices, David T. Snively

Master of Public Administration Practicums

In the wake of protests against law enforcement for an array of reasons, law enforcement officers and agencies have a responsibility to recognize and utilize the available mediums of communication with which they may best develop a connection to the communities they serve. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies must be informed that established, traditional methods of news dissemination – such as press conferences and printed articles – are now both ineffective and under-utilized, replaced in large part by social media live-time reports. For that reason, law enforcement agency executives must address both the responsibility to provide appropriately timed updates to critical …

Policing Postsecondary Education: University Police Legitimacy And Fear Of Crime On Campus, Christina N. Barker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Assessing the perceptions that students have of the university police officers charged with ensuring student safety is important to maintaining the overall safety of the campus. The current study sought to assess the relationship between student perceptions of university police and the fear of crime felt by students while on campus. Data collection was conducted through a survey methodology using a convenient sample of students in which a self-report survey was sent to the university email addresses of all students enrolled in a southeastern university (n=260). Through the employment of a scale developed to assess the perceptions of university police …