Law Commons^™

Restrictive Pursuit Policies And Rising Violent Crime, Ryan Kelly

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Consequences can be a driving factor for why citizens follow laws in the United States. Financial and physical freedom is valued. Citizen’s behavior may change if police officers threaten to take these things away for breaking laws. Policymakers today are working to restrict when law enforcement officers can chase criminals for breaking the law. Suppose the ability of law enforcement to hold criminals accountable is restricted. Would this not lead a reasonable person to believe that criminals may think they are free to commit crimes? This paper will cover current trends in violent crime in both the United States and …

Alternative Approaches To Police Interventions When Responding To Mental Health Crises Incidents, Karen Rivera Apolinar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Purpose: This study explored mental health workers perspectives on alternative approaches in responding to mental health crises.

The study was carried out in Southern California, in collaboration with mental health workers who currently work or previously have worked in mental health crisis. It adopted a post-positivists paradigm and data was gathered through individual interviews with mental health workers who have direct experience with mental health crisis response in the community and with the police. The twenty participants in the study were men and women working in the mental health field, and of various backgrounds, licensures, and ages.

The study found …

The Paradox Of Salvation: Police-Perpetrated Sexual Violence Against Sex Workers In The United States, Aydan Murphy-Stanley

Student Theses

This study explores how sex workers in the United States are sexually victimized and potentially traumatized by sexual violence perpetrated by police officers, as well as the paradoxical implications of this violence. A qualitative meta-synthesis was conducted to examine and integrate qualitative literature pertaining to this phenomenon. 10 databases were used to execute the systematic literature search. Only studies that utilized qualitative methodologies, are published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and examined police-sex worker interactions were included. Data from relevant studies was analyzed according to the meta-synthesis method. Police-perpetrated sexual violence against sex workers was identified as a form of sexual …

Let's Talk: An Analysis Of The Psychological And Emotional Impacts Of The Police Talk On Black Children, Kaila T. Glover Dodson

Scripps Senior Theses

The ‘Talk’ is a conversation (or series of conversations) that Black children receive from parents, grandparents, and other guardians and caretakers in their life. The conversation consists of informing them on behaviors to adopt as well as a script to recite should they encounter the police or any other agent of the law. Very little research has been done on the Talk yet alone the impact it has on Black children. Pulling from research on racial socialization, moral development, and the impact of racism on one’s well being, the purpose of this study is to explore how Black children are …

Political Legitimacy On College Campuses, Taylor Holtman

Honors Projects

The government system is looked to have an influential impact on a person’s life and the ability to trust the legal system is extremely important to have a working democracy. Changes need to be made in order to make the minorities feel like they belong. The history of segregation and descrimigation needs to end and the government needs to enact policies to make the minorities trust again in the system. College students have felt the pressure of social media in the wrongful treatment of minorities and seeing these things happen first hand. With the rise of technology these problems will …

Conflict Communication In Law Enforcement, Don Zheng

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This paper will focus on addressing conflict communication in law enforcement and what literature are available and the gaps within them. Conflict communication can range from the way's words are used, what words are used, and when those words are used when police officers interact with the public. Due to the lack of extensive research done within communication studies and law enforcement, this paper aims to aid in getting future research studies done within the professions. Conflict communication within law enforcement is a topic that should be talked about more to possibly lower the number of instances where physical and/or …

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 …

The Impact Of Bankruptcy, Duty Related Stress And Policing In Detroit, Sarah Markel

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Urban police officers are regularly exposed to trauma and duty-related stress. The City of Detroit’s highly publicized bankruptcy proceedings reached finality in December 2014 but led to an additional layer of stress via financial uncertainty to Detroit police officers. The officers already experience high critical incident exposure rates and organizational tension/instability. While certain types of stressors (critical incident, organizational and family/personal) have been extensively researched and are largely anticipated within law enforcement agencies, the bankruptcy resolution, which included wage, pension, and medical insurance losses, may have compounded issues within the department. This research project used a mixed method case study …

A Qualitative Study: Black Male College Students’ Perceptions Of Campus Law Enforcement Officers On A College Campus, Junelle M. Bennett

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Black males are often the recipients of police brutality, criminal stereotyping, and inequitable treatment in higher education. This qualitative study examined the experiential narratives of 15 Black male college students’ perception towards law enforcement officers. The data was collected via one-on-one interviews, concluded with a focus group, and then presented in narrative forums. The participants’ feelings, attitudes, or beliefs about themselves as Black males significantly contributed to their inherent identification of the cultural challenges associated with law enforcement officers. The participants’ personal and vicarious life experiences prior to enrolling into higher education were significant to the authentic comprehension of the …

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 …

Higher Education And Police Officers: The Effects On Citizen Complaints, Evan D. Brown

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study was conducted to examine the effects that different levels of education may have on the number of citizen complaints filed against police officers. There are many literature articles pertaining to the education of police officers but few studies have been conducted to measure the specific effects of higher education in law enforcement. The analysis in this paper will show relationships between higher education of police officers and if it has a relationship with the number of officer complaints.

Police Prevention Of Domestic Homicide: Missed Opportunities And Barriers To Change, Michael D. Saxton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This integrated-article dissertation focused on the critical role of police in responding to domestic violence (DV) and recognizing the potential risk of adult and child homicides. The first study examined the police role in domestic homicide through an analysis of cases reviewed by the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee in Ontario, Canada. Homicide cases with police contact were found to have 1.6 times more risk factors compared to those without police contact. Cases also show an overall scarcity of formal risk assessments, even when there was prior police contact. The second study was a national survey on the types of …

African American Males' Perception Of The Prince Georges' County (Md) Police And Improving The Relationship, Katija J. Ra'oof

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The shootings and killings across the country of unarmed African American males by police officers, has become a topic of discussion. Previous research indicates that African American males, in comparison to other groups, are more likely to have adverse encounters with law enforcement officials. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of African American males in Prince Georges' County regarding encounters with the Prince Georges' County Police Department and how the relationship can improve. Max Weber's social action theory was used to examine perception and purposive sampling aided in gathering this information from a …

Creating The Best: A Two-Prong Policy Approach To Improve The Quality Of Future Certified Ohio Peace Officers, Amy English

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This qualitative client applied study explained and explored a two-fold approach that could be used to implement policy changes that will aid small Ohio police departments in commissioning intellectually developed and psychologically suited individuals for employment in law enforcement. Several issues needed to be addressed in order to accomplish these policy changes. Criminological theories were correlated to deviant behaviors of criminally charged Ohio police officers. Past legislated police reform acts were addressed. Past studies of police officer higher education were analyzed. Finally, the implementation factors for psychological evaluations as a police academy pre-enrollment requirement were identified. This study, based on …

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 …

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 …

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 …

An Examination Of Inattentional Blindness In Law Enforcement, Gregory Lee

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Inattentional blindness, or the inability to visually detect an unexpected stimulus while attending to a task or situation, can have detrimental effects on those who are subject to the phenomenon. This may be particularly true for law enforcement officers, who are often engaged in cognitively demanding tasks that draw their attention away from potentially deadly hazards. This study aimed to look at the effects of inattentional blindness within a group of officers of varying degrees of experience and expertise. The officers were presented with a video-based scenario in which an unexpected stimulus was placed. The control group was asked to …

Radio Dispatch Cognitive Abilities And Working Memory, David A. Buitron

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Public safety radio dispatchers incontrovertibly have to manage multiple tasks at any given time, from relaying lifesaving information to field units, to simultaneously overseeing several monitors and keeping up with the radio transmissions in a timely manner. Interestingly, however, the underlying cognitive abilities necessitated for performing such tasks have not been thoroughly investigated. To begin understanding the cognitive faculties that underlie dispatching tasks, we gauged cognitive ability measures relevant to dispatcher duties and introduced Working Memory Capacity (WMC) as underlying the differentiation on performance. The four general dispatcher cognitive factors identified by Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) literature, were …

Mindfulness And Law Enforcement: An Effective Approach To Implementing Mindfulness For First Responders, Gina White

Mindfulness Studies Theses

An increasing number of studies show that people employed as first responders in high trauma service jobs tend to experience a high level of stress, at work and after hours. Studies suggest that constant exposure to job related stress leads to both physical and mental dysregulation. This study looks at the effects of implementing mindfulness tools and techniques to those working in law enforcement. Other works on this topic report mindfulness as a successful tool to increase wellbeing to a broad spectrum of populations. The methodology used in this study was designed specifically for first responders. The data findings were …

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 …

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 …

To Promote Or Not To Promote: An Inquiry Into The Experiences Of Female Police Officers And Their Decisions To Pursue Promotion, Kristin Poleski

Dissertations

Despite an increase in the number of female police officers in U.S. police agencies, female representation in supervisory (sergeant and lieutenant) and command (captain, assistant chief and chief) positions in most agencies is limited. This research study focuses on the promotional aspirations as an explanation of limited female representation with attention to the decision-making criteria female police officers use when deciding to participate in the promotional process. This study also examines the institutional, political, organizational structures, and/or personal factors which may impact the female police officers’ decisions to participate in the promotion process. And, this study examines a factor mentioned …

Investigative Inadequacies Or Investigative Corruption? Exploring The Role Of Police Misconduct Within Canadian Wrongful Conviction Cases, Michelle L. Lovegrove

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The phenomenon of wrongful convictions has begun to attract the attention of the public and scholars alike within the past few decades. However, despite this recent fixation the issue of wrongful convictions is not new, as research on the subject dates back to 1932 with the work of Edwin Borchard. Most of the research on the subject of wrongful convictions has focused largely on identifying the factors that contribute to these injustices. For the most part academics are in agreement when it comes to the causes of wrongful convictions, which include, eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, police & prosecutor misconduct, use …

Policing Celebratory Behavior: Tactical Vs. Relationship, A Micro Study Of Lexington Kentucky Police Response, Gregg Nelson Jones

Online Theses and Dissertations

In the last three plus decades, considerable attention has been given to certain common phases in the life cycle of gatherings, demonstrations, and riots in the United States. Much of the study focuses on theoretical origin and social psychology associated with each type of event. There is considerably less empirical work regarding police reaction to these events, particularly concerning celebratory behavior following a sporting event. Celebratory incidents are less organized than their protests counterpart. A variety of fans with collective zeal gather in a common location without leadership or mission. Celebratory behavior has become commonplace amongst fans in cities with …

Tokin Up In The 5280: Insight Into How Denver Police Officers Make Sense Of, And Define, Interpret, And React To The Legalization Of Marijuana, Kara K. Hoofnagle

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Laws surrounding the possession, use, and distribution of marijuana have undergone many changes for over a century. Political pressures and social prejudices have most often been the cause of these changes, rather than scientific research or rational thinking. As a result, the law has sometimes lagged behind social practice as in the current case in much of the U.S., including Colorado. In such an environment, it often falls on a police officer's definition, interpretation, and reaction to the laws to determine the extent to which certain laws and sanctions are enforced. Drawing on the work of Weick (1976), this dissertation …

Police Officer Stress, Loping Mechanisms, And Family Life, Maria Apruzzese

Honors Theses

Law Enforcement Officers experience stress for a variety of reasons that are related to both the nature and the organization of police work. Consequences of stress are felt by the police department, the individual, as well as their family. Building on previous research in this area, this project describes thirteen in-depth interviews with officers and their significant others in an effort to understand the impact of police stress on work and family life and vice versa. Officers were found to struggle between balancing their police role and home life. The family serves as both a coping resource for the officer …

The Contribution Of Forced Medical Retirement To Symptoms Of Depression, Anxiety And Stress In Law Enforcement Officers, Kimberley Blackmon

Theses and Dissertations

This research explored whether a statistically significant difference exists between symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in police officers who were forced into medical retirement as compared to those who retired after years of completed service. The sample population of retired police officers as well as the appropriate testing instruments for these targeted individuals is discussed. In addition, the dissertation addresses how the survey determined the type of retirement they were subjected to (voluntary or involuntary) and any depressive or other psychological symptoms since that retirement. The findings from this study show that a statistically significant difference exists in the …

Training Law Enforcement In Mental Health: A Broad-Based Model, Rachael Elaine Hatfield

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Police officers respond to many calls involving people suffering from a mental illness; yet many law enforcement training programs and workshops do not include mental health training. A literature review was conducted to explore the problems resulting from the lack of mental health training available for law enforcement officers and identify specialized training programs currently being implemented to address those problems. The review identified several program models being implemented throughout the United States including: Joint Police/Mental Health Team Model, Mobile Crisis Unit Model, Crisis Intervention Team Model, and the Broad-Based Training Model. These models include empirically supported components used to …