What works for me? Arrest decisions as adaptive behavior.
Item
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Title
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What works for me? Arrest decisions as adaptive behavior.
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Identifier
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AAI3144113
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identifier
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3144113
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Creator
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Linn, Edith.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Warren Benton
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Criminology and Penology | Psychology, Social | Political Science, Public Administration
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Abstract
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This study explores a factor rarely considered in the research on arrest discretion: arrest processing itself. It posits that when arrest-making procedures affect officers' personal lives, they will adapt their arrest-making behavior to accommodate their needs. A survey was administered to a representative sample of 506 officers who regularly performed routine patrol in New York, the city with possibly the longest arrest processing in the nation. Variables examined included arrest overtime need, post-work commitments, antipathy toward arrest-processing, tactics (adaptations) to control arrest-making, relative importance of personal versus situational variables, intentions preceding arrest decisions, attitudes toward arrest, and efforts by management to control adaptive behavior. Among the confirmed hypotheses were that officers with a higher need for arrest overtime made more frequent use of arrest overtime-seeking tactics; that officers who had more frequent post-work commitments had a more frequent need to end their tour on time, which corresponded with more frequent use of arrest-avoidance tactics; that officers who were more concerned about processing's administrative or prisoner-handling difficulties were more often "turned off" to arrest-making, which also corresponded with more frequent use of arrest-avoidance tactics; that officers making elective arrests or declining arrests began their tour intending such outcomes and patrolled in a style to assure such outcomes; that officers who held more cynical attitudes toward arrests used both overtime-seeking and arrest-avoidance adaptations more often; and that managerial efforts to control adaptive arrest behavior through close supervision, reassignment of late-in-tour arrests, and sanctions for high overtime or low arrests, were generally ineffective. Other significant findings emerged through comparisons of high-arrest and low-arrest officers, males and females, and officers from slower-processing and quicker-processing city boroughs. The research is concluded with an examination of arrest-processing in other large cities, and suggestions for improving the NYPD's procedures.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
