NCJ Number
209863
Journal
Criminal Justice Studies: A Critical Journal of Crime, Law and Society Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2005 Pages: 51-68
Date Published
March 2005
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examined situational influences affecting the arrest outcomes of police-suspect encounters with a particular focus on suspect race.
Abstract
Research on how citizen race influences police decisionmaking has abounded in the literature. There is good reason to believe that despite a history of racial discrimination in police work, policing at the street level has changed since the reform efforts of the 1970s. The current study focused on whether suspect race influenced arrest outcomes. Data were obtained from systematic social observations of police officers in Cincinnati, OH, between April 1997 and April 1998; 220 encounters involving White suspects and 367 police encounters with Black suspects were analyzed. Variables under consideration included arrest decision, offense seriousness, quantity of evidence, arrest preferred, officer dispatched, intoxicated suspect, disrespectful suspect, drug-involved suspect, sex and age of suspect, and citizen bystanders. Results of multivariate analyses indicated that legal variables such as offense seriousness and evidence of wrongdoing were the most significant factors related to an officer’s decision to arrest a suspect. Extralegal factors such as suspect age, sex, and demeanor also influenced arrest decisions but these influences differed by suspect race. These findings can be interpreted as supporting race-based conflict theory since the arrest outcome for Blacks was conditioned by extra-legal and legal factors whereas for Whites the decision to arrest was only conditioned by a few extralegal factors. Future research should focus on direct and indirect effects of officer characteristics on arrest outcomes. Tables, notes, references