The Neighborhood Context of Police Behavior
The Neighborhood Context of Police Behavior
复制标题
DOI：
10.1086/449126
复制
发表时间：
1986-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Douglas A. Smith
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Douglas A. Smith
许多研究人员假设，邻里环境可能会影响警察的行为。数据来自位于美国三大城市的六十个社区。S.城市进行了分析，使用二元和多元分析的五个措施的警察行为和11个邻里特征，以测试邻里背景假设。警察向居民提供更多的援助，并在种族混杂的社区与可疑人员和涉嫌违法者进行更多的接触。他们也不太可能在高犯罪率地区阻止可疑人员。与犯罪者在较高地位的社区遇到的犯罪者相比，警察在较低地位的社区遇到的嫌疑人被逮捕的风险是三倍，无论犯罪类型，犯罪者的种族，犯罪者的行为举止和受害者对刑事逮捕的偏好如何。警察使用强制权力的社区之间的变化是与社区的种族构成，但不是归因于种族的个人面临的警察。警察对犯罪受害者的反应也受到邻里特征的影响。当考虑到其他变量时，警察似乎不太可能在犯罪率较高的社区提交事故报告。门槛效应可能会起作用，在警察报告事件之前，犯罪必须在犯罪率较高的社区达到更高的严重程度。邻里特征和警察部门的结构和政策可能会相互作用，产生系统的，因此可预测的，警察行为的模式。
A number of researchers have hypothesized that neighborhood context may influence police behavior. Data from sixty neighborhoods located in three large U. S. cities were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analyses of five measures of police behavior and eleven neighborhood characteristics to test the neighborhood context hypothesis. Police offer more assistance to residents and initiate more contacts with suspicious persons and suspected violators in racially heterogeneous neighborhoods. They are also less likely to stop suspicious persons in high-crime areas. Suspects encountered by police in lower-status neighborhoods run three times the risk of arrest compared with offenders encountered in higher-status neighborhoods, regardless of type of crime, race of offender, offender demeanor, and victim preferences for criminal arrest. Variation in police use of coercive authority among neighborhoods is linked to the racial composition of neighborhoods but is not attributable to the race of individuals confronted by police. Police response to crime victims is also influenced by neighborhood characteristics. Officers appear less likely to file incident reports in higher-crime neighborhoods when other variables are taken into consideration. A threshold effect may operate in which offenses must reach a higher level of seriousness in higher-crime neighborhoods before police report incidents. Neighborhood characteristics and police departmental structure and policies may interact to produce systematic, and therefore predictable, patterns of police behavior.