NCJ Number
185096
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 27 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2000 Pages: 600-624
Date Published
October 2000
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This article examines the schemata of police officers socialized before and after their department changed its domestic violence policy to mandate arrests when probable cause exists in domestic disturbances.
Abstract
Schemata are used to organize knowledge, helping people interpret their environment and decide on courses of action. It was hypothesized that officers socialized before the policy change would have schemata that discouraged them from making arrests and rating victims cooperative and likely to prosecute their cases, whereas the opposite was predicted for officers socialized during the pro-arrest era. Using logistic regression, the study analyzed the relationship of officers' schemata to their arrest decisions at domestic calls and their attitudes toward the victims at those calls. There was more similarity than differences between the two groups of officers, although the schema variable did predict officers' belief in the likelihood of victims prosecuting their cases, pointing to the utility of schema theory for understanding police attitudes. Tables, appendix, notes, references