POLICE DISRESPECT TOWARD THE PUBLIC: AN ENCOUNTER‐BASED ANALYSIS*

We use observations of police encounters with 3,130 suspects in Indianapolis and St. Petersburg to estimate three influences on police disrespect: how suspects behave, their personal characteristics, and the location of the encounter. Logistic regression models show that suspects' behaviors were the most powerful predictors, but the suspect's sex, age, income, and degree of neighborhood disadvantage were also significant. Minority suspects experienced disrespect less often than whites (statistically significant in the hierarchical analysis controlling for degree of neighborhood disadvantage). These effects are concentrated in St. Petersburg, where the chief had made the suppression of police abuses a visible priority. The findings offer partial confirmation of Donald Black's theory of law.

[1]  Stephen D. Mastrofski,et al.  THE HELPING HAND OF THE LAW: POLICE CONTROL OF CITIZENS ON REQUEST* , 2000 .

[2]  Ronald Weitzer,et al.  Citizens’ Perceptions of Police Misconduct: Race and Neighborhood Context , 1999 .

[3]  Kenneth C. Land,et al.  MACRO‐MICRO INTEGRATION IN THE STUDY OF VICTIMIZATION: A HIERARCHICAL LOGISTIC MODEL ANALYSIS ACROSS SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOODS* , 1994 .

[4]  Steven M. Chermak,et al.  Causes of police behavior revisited , 1993 .

[5]  Douglas A. Smith.  The Organizational Context of Legal Control , 1984 .

[6]  David A. Klinger,et al.  MORE ON DEMEANOR AND ARREST IN DADE COUNTY , 1996 .

[7]  Robert E. Worden,et al.  POLICE ARRESTS IN DOMESTIC DISTURBANCES: A FURTHER LOOK , 1984 .

[8]  Tom R. Tyler,et al.  Procedural Fairness and Compliance with the Law , 1997 .

[9]  Richard J. Lundman.  City police and drunk driving: Baseline data , 1998 .

[10]  Richard J. Lundman.  Demeanor and Arrest: Additional Evidence from Previously Unpublished Data , 1996 .

[11]  Robert E. Worden,et al.  DEMEANOR, CRIME, AND POLICE BEHAVIOR: A REEXAMINATION OF THE POLICE SERVICES STUDY DATA* , 1996 .

[12]  S. Raudenbush,et al.  Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. , 1997, Science.

[13]  Donald Black,et al.  The Epistemology of Pure Sociology , 1995, Law & Social Inquiry.

[14]  Jeffrey B. Snipes,et al.  Law enforcement in a time of community policing , 1996 .

[15]  Robin S. Engel,et al.  Further exploration of the demeanor hypothesis: The interaction effects of suspects' characteristics and demeanor on police behavior , 2000 .

[16]  R. Felson.  BIG PEOPLE HIT LITTLE PEOPLE: SEX DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICAL POWER AND INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE* , 1996 .

[17]  T. Tyler,et al.  Public trust and confidence in legal authorities: What do majority and minority group members want from the law and legal institutions? , 2001, Behavioral sciences & the law.

[18]  M. Mok,et al.  Effect of Catholic School Culture on Students’ Achievement in the Higher School Certificate Examination: a multilevel path analysis , 1998 .

[19]  Jeffrey Fagan,et al.  Street Stops and Broken Windows: Terry, Race and Disorder in New York City , 2001 .

[20]  David Burlingame,et al.  Law enforcement and higher education: Is there an impasse? , 1999 .

[21]  R. Sampson,et al.  Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory , 1989, American Journal of Sociology.

[22]  Richard E. Sykes,et al.  A Theory of Deference Exchange in Police-Civilian Encounters , 1975, American Journal of Sociology.

[23]  Steve Herbert,et al.  POLICE SUBCULTURE RECONSIDERED , 1998 .

[24]  E. F. Avakame,et al.  “Did you call the police? What did they do?” An empirical assessment of black's theory of mobilization of law , 1999 .

[25]  Robert E. Worden,et al.  Situational and Attitudinal Explanations of Police Behavior: A Theoretical Reappraisal and Empirical Assessment , 1989 .

[26]  Jeffrey S. Slovak.  Police Organization and Policing Environment: Case Study of a Disjuncture , 1987 .

[27]  Stephen D. Mastrofski,et al.  Compliance on Demand: The Public's Response to Specific Police Requests , 1996 .

[28]  David A. Klinger,et al.  DEMEANOR OR CRIME? WHY “HOSTILE” CITIZENS ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE ARRESTED* , 1994 .

[29]  Egon Bittner,et al.  Learning the Skills of Policing , 1984 .

[30]  Erving Goffman,et al.  The Nature of Deference and Demeanor , 1956 .

[31]  David A. Klinger,et al.  NEGOTIATING ORDER IN PATROL WORK: AN ECOLOGICAL THEORY OF POLICE RESPONSE TO DEVIANCE* , 1997 .

[32]  Stephen D. Mastrofski,et al.  On the Meaning and Measurement of Suspects' Demeanor Toward the Police: A Comment on “Demeanor and Arrest” , 1996 .

[33]  C. Clogg,et al.  Statistical Methods for Comparing Regression Coefficients Between Models , 1995, American Journal of Sociology.

[34]  Lawrence W. Sherman,et al.  Do fair procedures matter? The effect of procedural justice on spouse assault. , 1997 .