Situational Risk Factors and Decision Making in Police Officers

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济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、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项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。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在约翰杰伊刑事司法学院Phillip Atiba Goff博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家，他研究了情况如何影响警察在现场与社区居民互动时的决定和行动的心理学。警察的核心角色能力要求他们在与居民互动期间保持控制，并保持自己的合法性，这对参与其中的每个人都可能是一种挑战。这个项目调查了美国巡逻警察的长期状况如何影响核心角色能力，以及随后使用武力的决定。这个项目扩展和提炼了关于何时、如何以及对谁来说身份和身份与侵略和暴力相对应的科学理论。这项研究还试图通过其发现、与官员和居民的接触以及本科生研究奖学金的指导来造福社会。本项目调查了情境脆弱性、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的武力比率。为此，调查人员将对美国七个城市的警察机构的警察进行调查，并将警察的调查回应与描述警察在野外与居民互动时的实际行为的数据联系起来，包括行人和车辆拦截以及使用武力。这一方法使调查人员能够测试情景脆弱性与使用武力之间的关系，并以情景因素为调节因素。为了从社区居民的角度了解警察的长期状况，调查人员还将对美国三个城市的居民进行具有代表性的调查。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。总而言之，这些研究开始在嵌入的、动态的社会背景下设计一门关于强大机构中慢性情况的科学。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.