Situational Risk Factors and Decision Making in Police Officers

该奖项是作为NSF的社会，行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在约翰·杰伊刑事司法学院的菲利普·阿提巴·戈夫博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金支持一位早期职业科学家调查警察在与社区居民互动时的决策和行动的心理。警官的核心角色能力要求他们在与居民的互动中保持控制，并保持自己的合法性，这对每个参与者来说都是一个挑战。该项目调查了美国巡逻警务中的慢性情况如何影响核心角色能力，以及随后使用武力的决定。该项目扩展和完善了关于何时、如何以及对谁而言，地位和身份与侵略和暴力相对应的科学理论。本研究还试图通过其研究结果，与官员和居民的接触，以及对本科研究学者的指导来造福社会。本项目探讨了情境脆弱性，社会地位和社会认同如何预测官员与居民互动中的每次互动率。为此，调查人员将对美国七个城市的警察机构的警官进行调查，并将警官的调查答复与描述警官与现场居民互动的实际行为的数据联系起来，包括行人和车辆停止以及使用武力。这种方法使调查人员能够测试情境脆弱性与使用武力之间的关系，并以情境因素作为调节因素。为了从社区居民的角度了解警务的长期状况，调查人员还将对美国三个城市的居民进行代表性调查。这些方法还可以控制社区层面的因素，包括逮捕率、种族隔离和收入不平等。这些研究一起开始设计一个科学的慢性情况下，在强大的机构内嵌入，动态的社会contexts.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the psychology of how situations shape police officers' decisions and actions when interacting with community residents in the field. Police officers' core role competencies require them to maintain control, and also to maintain their own legitimacy, during interactions with residents that can be challenging for everyone involved. This project investigates how chronic situations within American patrol policing impacts core role competencies, and subsequent decisions to use force. This project expands and refines scientific theories of when, how, and for whom status and identity correspond with aggression and violence. This research also seeks to benefit society through its findings, contact with officers and residents, and mentorship of undergraduate research scholars.This project investigates how situational vulnerabilities, social status, and social identity predict the per-interaction rate of force in officer-resident interactions. To do so, the investigators will conduct surveys of officers in police agencies across seven U.S. cities, and link officers' survey responses with data describing officers' actual behavior in interactions with residents in the field, including pedestrian and vehicle stops and use of force. This approach enables the investigators to test relationships between situational vulnerabilities and use of force, with situational factors as moderators. To understand the chronic situations of policing from community residents' perspectives, the investigators will also conduct representative surveys of residents in three U.S. cities. These methods also enable controls for neighborhood-level factors, including arrest rates, racial segregation, and income inequality. Together, these studies begin to design a science of chronic situations in powerful institutions within embedded, dynamic social contexts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.