Police Misconduct Research Articles

Massey v. Texas: Eroding the Exclusionary Rule and Incentivizing Police Misconduct

Massey v. Texas: Eroding the Exclusionary Rule and Incentivizing Police Misconduct

Giving the Fourth Amendment Meaning: Creating an Adversarial Warrant Proceeding to Protect From Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

For at least the past 40 years, police and prosecutors have had free reign in conducting illegal searches and seizures nominally barred by the Fourth Amendment. The breadth of exceptions to the warrant requirement, the lax interpretation of probable cause, and especially the “good faith” doctrine announced in U.S. v. Leon have led to severe violations of privacy rights, trauma to those wrongly searched or seized, and a court system overburdened by police misconduct cases. Most scholars analyzing the issue agree that the rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment—to be free from unreasonable search and seizure—have been severely eroded or even eviscerated by the Supreme Court. Some suggest that in order to revitalize the Fourth Amendment, the United States should make it easier to secure civil damages after Fourth Amendment rights have been violated. Others have argued that the United States must guarantee stronger ex ante protections to uphold fundamental privacy rights before they are violated. This Note argues that, while warrant requirements do need to be more stringent to safeguard Fourth Amendment rights, warrant requirements cannot on their own sufficiently protect such a sacred right. This Note proposes the adoption of adversarial warrant proceedings, designed to ensure police and prosecutors meet their probable cause burden and to ensure that any lies or sloppy investigative work are rooted out from a warrant application before a warrant is granted. False searches and arrests can be deeply traumatizing and have excruciating and long-term impacts. For the Fourth Amendment to have any meaningful affect, the People must have an advocate—a Warrants Counsel— fighting for their right to be free from unreasonable searches before that right is violated. The Roberts Court’s destruction of the Fourth Amendment leaves little reason to expect protection from unreasonable search and seizure through litigation. Instead, Congress must create the Warrants Counsel program legislatively. Congress should look to the major success of the Federal Defenders program as a blueprint for zealous advocacy and protection of rights. A Warrants Counsel, like a public defender, would be a government paid attorney, present to argue against probable cause before a magistrate whenever police or prosecutors seek a warrant. Like the Sixth Amendment before the public defender system, the Fourth Amendment desperately needs some structure to give its language meaning; the Warrants Counsel system would counterbalance over-powered police and prosecutors in favor of the People.

Editorial Commentary

Editorial Commentary

Policing the Borribles: conjunctural crisis and moral panic in children’s literature

ABSTRACT Michael de Larrabeiti’s controversial series of novels for youth (published in 1975, 1981, and 1986) about the Borribles, children who grow feral and live in anarchic communities in London, were influential for the urban fantasy genre. The novels describe a fictional fantasy subculture but nevertheless engage with issues of the rise of a law-and-order society in the U.K. in the 1970s and police harassment of black youth. Drawing from the work of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, the paper argues that the trilogy represents an imaginary political solution, grounded in anticapitalist, antiauthority, and antiracist ethics, to the conjunctural crisis of the 1970s and the rise of Thatcherism. The paper reads the structure of feeling of Borrible culture and argues how its narrative functions through a series of displacements to engage with racist police tactics, anarchist squats, and anticapitalist and antiwork ethics.

Correlates of Client-Perpetrated Violence Against Female Sex Workers in Bogotá.

This paper aims to estimate the prevalence of client-perpetrated violence against female sex workers (FSWs) in Bogotá and to understand what structural and environmental factors are associated with such victimization. The project used secondary data from interviews with 2,684 FSWs. Multivariable binary logistic regression was used to test for associations with client-perpetrated violence. Findings reveal that factors such as experiencing police harassment and social stigma were positively associated with client-perpetrated violence. Situational factors such as providing services in motels, hotels, on the street, and in cars were also associated with increased odds of becoming a victim of violence.

Victims’ experiences of crime, police behaviour and complaint avenues for reporting police misconduct in Nigeria: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

ABSTRACT Police-public relations and accountability are issues of global concern. This study makes an original and significant contribution to police policy, practice and programs designed to encourage confidence in the police by exploring victims’ experiences of crime, police responses and avenues for channelling complaints following police misconduct. An interpretative phenomenological analysis and semi-structured interview were adopted to collate data from 24 male and female participants comprising both victims of crime and non-crime but with direct experiences of perceived police misconduct from Delta state, Nigeria. The analysis finds perceived fear, lack of trust and limited awareness of redress avenues following police misconduct. The study recommends a legal-informed cognitive behavioural therapy on the available complaints channel to improve public confidence in the Nigerian police.

A trauma-informed approach is needed to reduce police misconduct

A trauma-informed approach is needed to reduce police misconduct

Legal mobilization and branches of law: Contesting racialized policing in French courts

AbstractWhen activists use the law to promote social change, how does the branch of law (criminal law, civil law, etc.) matter for movement outcomes? To examine this question, the article builds on legal mobilization scholarship, and on a qualitative study comparing three litigation strategies to contest racialized policing in France: mobilizing criminal law to hold officers accountable for police killings, mobilizing civil law to sue the state for racial profiling, and combining criminal and civil law to contest racialized police harassment. The findings suggest that three characteristics of legal branches matter for legal mobilization: (i) the branch's dominant paradigm (e.g., punitive vs. compensatory) determines how the problem gets framed and which actors are blamed for it; (ii) the legal provisions of each branch shape which aspects of the problem get highlighted, and which are obscured; (iii) the procedural and evidentiary rules determine the extent to which activists and victims can intervene in the fact-finding process and thus how much they can influence the strength of their claims in court. When they mobilize the law, social change actors strategize around the opportunities and constraints of various branches of law, to try influencing judicial decisions and the media coverage of cases.

Introduction

Introduction

Factors of Fatigue on Long-route Drivers in Bangladesh

In various studies, driver fatigue is a major contributing factor to fatal road accidents. In Bangladesh, road accidents and fatalities increased by 13.43% and 15.7% respectively, in 2021 compared with 2020. It is growing substantially and frighteningly, resulting in a significant loss of life and resources. Drivers in Bangladesh are more likely to have fatigue-related accidents, which increases their vulnerability on the social and economic aspects as well as their probability of becoming disabled. This study was conducted in three districts (Dinajpur, Gaibandha, Rajshahi) which are northwest region of Bangladesh. In these, study 103 drivers of long route above 400km were interviewed through discussions to gather information on drivers, such as their age, driving history, economic conditions, the times of day when they are most likely affected by fatigue, causes of fatigue, and suggestions from their perspective. The study found 17 factors and the most important factors are lack of sleep (17%), traffic jams (8%), police harassment (8%), bad road conditions (13%), daytime driving restriction (1%) and drug consumption (1%). This study will assist policymakers in creating an environment to adopt appropriate preventive measures to reduce fatigue induced accidents.

Exploring the Feasibility of Assessing Cultural Competence in Police Officers

Pathology, personality, and integrity-related construct assessments have been widely used in the selection of police officers. However, the incidence of police brutality and misconduct is still concerning. The present study explored the feasibility of the assessment of cultural competence in police officers. We explored the extent to which the change to the agency’s first ever Black CEO would affect cultural competence of the officers as well as incidence of misconduct. Results showed that scores on a cultural competence factor of an in-basket simulation used for promotional assessments at a state highway patrol agency were not predictive of either supervisor-rated performance or incidence of misconduct. Whereas results showed that misconduct was not predicted by the agency’s first Black CEO, cultural competence of the officers did increase after the change in command. Practical implications for law enforcement agencies and suggestions for future research are discussed.

What Can Go Wrong When Everything is Right? Using Organizational Justice to Understand Police Misconduct and Improve Personnel Systems

Despite decades of attention paid to police reform, cases of office misconduct still continue to plague policing organizations. Assuming that organizations may still experience such officer malfeasance even when attempting to pursue best practices, we aim to explore how things can go wrong when everything else seems right. Specifically, we rely on trickle-down models of organizational justice, group engagement, and social identity to articulate how otherwise desirable organizational outcomes may produce detrimental outgroup biases. Based on our theoretical premise, we articulate specific changes that may be made to personnel systems that can avoid such officer misconduct in policing contexts.

Explaining Police Misconduct in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, 2010-2019

ABSTRACT Several recent studies consider the determinants of misconduct by military personnel deployed to United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKOs). While the majority of peacekeepers carry out their duties honorably and often at great personal risk, these studies operate from the premise that misconduct by even a few peacekeepers can undermine a mission, and reduce support for future missions. Even so, misconduct by civilian police deployed to PKOs remains massively understudied in comparison to their military counterparts, though UN police are more likely to face credible allegations of misconduct compared to UN troops. Based on the inclusive or extractive incentives of contributor states, we find support for the argument that the behavior of security personnel at home readily predicts misconduct when deployed to PKOs. This same logic has implications for the UN's increasingly preferred ‘Formed Police Units,’ whose use may actually increase the likelihood of sexual exploitation and abuse.

Police Harassment and Violence Against Transgender & Gender Diverse Sex Workers in the United States

ABSTRACT Sex workers continue to experience high rates of abuse and violence around the world. However, information regarding police-perpetrated harassment and violence against transgender and gender diverse (TGD) sex workers in the United States remains extremely limited. The current study is the first known examination of police interaction, harassment, and violence among TGD sex workers in the United States using a large nationwide dataset. Data from 23,372 TGD people were used. Results revealed that sex workers were more likely to experience police interaction, harassment, and violence compared to non-sex workers. Among sex workers with police interaction while doing sex work, 89.2% reported experiencing at least one type of harassment and/or violence. Regression analyses revealed that individuals with no reported income and trans women were more likely to experience multiple types of police harassment/violence. Taken together, TGD sex workers continue to experience alarming rates of interaction, harassment, and violence from police in the United States. Urgent, and effective intervention is needed to eliminate police harassment and violence toward TGD sex workers and provide support for TGD sex workers who survive this violence.

Exploring police sexual misconduct: an examination of a decade of incidents in a metropolitan agency

PurposePolice misconduct is a grave matter undermining public trust in law enforcement and police professionalism. While research has specified major forms and causal theories of police misconduct, especially regarding corruption and excessive force, scientific attention to police sexual misconduct (PSM) has been more limited and is addressed here. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe current study was commissioned to examine PSM incidents (n = 50) between 2000 and 2009 in a large, metropolitan, police department in the USA. Data were extracted from agency internal affairs case files, personnel records and disciplinary histories for involved officers.FindingsAnalyses identified common factors and trends across officers, complainants and sexual misconduct events that were dichotomized per case substantiation and observed on a severity continuum from unobtrusive to criminal conduct.Originality/valueThough findings did not evidence a deviant subculture often implicated in the police literature, specific opportunities to reduce officer misconduct, including intensifying administrative sanctioning and other perceptual deterrence measures, were identified.

The Kerry Babies, criminology, and Reinhart Koselleck

The Kerry Babies case was a criminal investigation that followed the discovery of a dead infant on a beach in the southwest of Ireland in April 1984. Charges were laid and dismissed. A tribunal of inquiry into alleged police malpractice followed, and the case returned to the courts 35 years later. This paper takes a multidimensional approach to historical time, drawing on the works of German philosopher Reinhart Koselleck to analyse the case, its legacy, and its implications for criminological theory. A Koselleckian approach – drawing in particular on the role of anachronisms, the mobilisation of memory and the categories of experience and expectation – facilitates a novel perspective on child killing, unmarried motherhood, and policing in 20th-century Ireland.

Exploring civil society perspectives on the human rights situation of LGBT+ people in the Caribbean Community

ABSTRACT This study is the first pan-regional analysis of civil society organizations’ perspectives on the human rights situation of LGBT + people in Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries. Paradoxically, whilst UN treaties extend anti-discrimination rights to LGBT + people in most member countries, simultaneously, colonial-era legislation makes intimate same sex relations unlawful. Analysis of the corpus of civil society organizations’ (CSO) submissions to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), reveals how governments’ failure to reform the law is often based on public opposition grounded in religious conservatism. Moreover, the endurance of anti-LGBT + colonial era legislation is shown to underpin a raft of rights pathologies and reinforce prejudice and negative social attitudes. The principal rights breaches stem from systemic institutional discrimination, and include violence, hate crimes and harassment; police malpractice and denial of justice; as well as failings in healthcare and social protection. Analysis of framing in the civil society UPR corpus reveals the personal impacts of on LGBT + people, including criminalization, victimization, stigma, fear and lack of self-worth.

Stanford Ethics Team Examines Intersection of Homelessness, Mental Illness, Police Conduct

Stanford Ethics Team Examines Intersection of Homelessness, Mental Illness, Police Conduct

The Jungle of rights: The legal consciousness of migrant children in transit in Calais

This article aims to explore the legal consciousness of migrant children in transit at the France–UK border. Based on secondary analysis of legal measures to help ensure child protection, and on ethnographic fieldwork in Calais, this paper shows that the legal consciousness of migrant children is shaped by several factors such as their experience of migration, their previous interactions with public institutions in Europe, their living conditions in transit areas, the police's harassment strategy, the influence of migrant peers and by their own migration plans. We will show that these factors have a deep impact on the legal consciousness of unaccompanied minors and consequently on both their (non-)claim of protection and (non-)use of legal tools. By mobilizing biographical sets of data, we will also show that their legal consciousness results from the combination of these contextual factors with their individual experiences and sociological characteristics (education, origin, …). From a methodological point of view, this contribution provides evidence of the importance of adopting a child-centred approach in ethnographic research. This approach highlights discrepancies between policy aims and children's needs.

Police legitimacy regimes and the suppression of citizen oversight in response to police violence

AbstractA lack of formal accountability in the aftermath of police violence against communities of color has long fueled public demands for increased police oversight. Yet, little is known about how interorganizational relationships affect citizen complaint investigations once citizen review boards (CRBs) are established. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and archival sources about the Syracuse Citizen Review Board in New York State, I show how CRBs operate as bureaucratic agencies that ostensibly address police misconduct, yet are managed by municipal power relations that neutralize the agency's ability to actualize change. Specifically, I find that a CRB's embeddedness within a municipality's interorganizational field creates a site of contestation to ensure public legitimation of police despite community concern. To show how the aims of citizen oversight can be upended within the structural and practical politics of local government, I introduce the concept of a police legitimacy regime: a set of (in)formal policies, organizations, and actors that protect and promote the legitimacy of state police power. In Syracuse, police protection happens at the expense of residents’ demands for police reform, and I conclude by outlining the implications of this research for other communities seeking citizen‐led approaches to police accountability.