Out of Place: Racial Stereotypes and the Ecology of Frisks and Searches Following Traffic Stops
Leo Carroll and M. Lilliana Gonzalez
Objectives: Test hypotheses drawn from Smith and Alpert’s social conditioning theory that explains biased policing as the result of implicit racial stereotypes. Distinguishing between frisks and searches, we hypothesize that (1) Black drivers are more likely than White drivers to be frisked and searched; (2) racial disparity is greater in frisks than searches; (3) racial disparity in frisks, but not searches, is conditional upon the racial composition of the community; and (4) that drivers’ race is not related to the productivity of searches. Methods: Data are all traffic stops made by the Rhode Island State Police in 2006, exclusive of those in which a search was mandatory. Multinomial and binary logistic regressions are employed to estimate models of frisks, searches, search productivity, and to test the conditional effect of community context. Results: Each of the four hypotheses is supported. Conclusion: Biased policing is largely the product of implicit stereotypes that are activated in contexts in which Black drivers appear out of place and in police actions that require quick decisions providing little time to monitor cognitions. This insight has important implications for police training. Because of limitations in this study, additional research that distinguishes frisks and searches is needed.
Contact and Compromise: Explaining Support for Conciliatory Measures in the Context of Violent Intergroup Conflict
Justin T. Pickett, Thomas Baker, Christi Metcalfe, Marc Gertz, and Rose Bellandi
Objectives: Informed by intergroup contact theory, this study explores the relationships between intergroup contact, perceived out-group threat, and support for conciliatory solutions to the violent conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Methods: Regression and structural equation models analyze public opinion data collected in Israel in 2011 and 2012. The analyses assess whether quantity and quality of Israeli Jews’ contact with Israeli Arabs in day-to-day encounters are associated with their support for conciliatory policies. Results: The quality, but not the quantity, of contact is associated with lower levels of perceived Palestinian threat and, in turn, with increased support for compromise. Conclusion: The current study provides initial evidence that everyday interactions with Israeli Arabs, when they occur under optimal conditions, may have the potential to reduce Israeli Jews’ perceptions of Palestinian threat and, in turn, increase their support for compromise.
The Role of Affect in Intended Rule Breaking: Extending the Rational Choice Perspective
Amy Sariti Kamerdze, Tom Loughran, Ray Paternoster, and Tracy Sohoni
Objectives: Through a mood induction procedure, we prime positive, negative, or a neutral affective state and examine its effect on intentions to cheat on an exam and drinking and driving. Method: University students served as subjects for the study. They were provided with a questionnaire that randomized a mood induction procedure. Respondents were asked to recall (1) a recent positive event or experience, (2) a recent negative event or experience, or (3) their favorite books. They then completed a questionnaire that asked about their current mood state and got their responses to two hypothetical crime scenarios—cheating on an exam and drinking and driving. They were also asked questions pertaining to perceived risk, their decision-making style, impulsivity, and confidence. Results: We found that those experiencing an intense positive mood state were generally less likely to report that they would cheat or drive drunk relative to the negative and neutral state. However, we found little support for the suggested mediating causal mechanisms. Conclusions: Affective states milder than emotions are related to intentions to commit acts that are in the long-term harmful and go against self-interest. The relationship between affect states and criminal decision making can benefit from additional research.
Police Charging Practices for Incidents of Intimate Partner Violence in Canada
Myrna Dawson and Tina Hotton
Objectives: To examine police charging practices in case of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada. Methods: In this national level study, we explore police charging in cases of IPV using data from the 2008 Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) survey. Using logistic regression, we examine the impact of several key legal and extralegal factors on the police charging decisions. Results: Analysis shows that, while the majority of cases were cleared by charge, the proportion of cases in which police recommended a charge varied across the country. Further, the majority of legal and extralegal variables examined were significantly associated with the police decision to lay a charge across the jurisdictions examined, including the presence of victim injury, multiple victims, offence type as well as gender of the victim and the victim–accused relationship. Conclusion: Study findings indicate that future research on police charging in cases of IPV require more precise examinations of the role played by gender and the type of relationship as well as an investigation of the community context in which police decisions are made.
Copper Cable Theft: Revisiting the Price–Theft Hypothesis
Aiden Sidebottom, Matt Ashby, and Shane D. Johnson
Objectives: To test the commonly espoused but little examined hypothesis that fluctuations in the price of metal are associated with changes in the volume of metal theft. Specifically, we analyze the relationship between the price of copper and the number of police recorded “live” copper cable thefts from the British railway network (2006 to 2012). Method: Time-series analysis was performed using 76 months of data to determine the association between mean copper price and police recorded “live” copper cable theft. Two rival hypotheses, that changes in the theft of copper cabling reflect changes in the theft of railway property more generally (or the reporting thereof) or variations in the rate of unemployment, were also tested. Results: We find support for the price–theft hypothesis: Changes in the price of copper were positively associated with variations in the volume of “live” copper cable theft. A downward trend in copper cable theft in recent years is also observed, although the mechanism/mechanisms underpinning this pattern is unclear. Conclusion: The theft of “live” copper cable is associated with fluctuations in copper price. As such, it differs substantially from the “crime drop” typically noted for most types of crime providing further support for the price–theft hypothesis.
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