Police Procedures Research Articles

Vigilante Justice and Police Protocols in the Latin American South Cone

There is a wide debate worldwide, and particularly in Latin America with respect to citizen insecurity and the proliferation of more punitive claims from the society itself. In this article we analyze the attitude of the citizens belonging to the countries of the Latin American South Cone towardsmaintaining the law regarding persecuting and punishing criminals. In particular, we tackle the approval of vigilante justice in some circumstances and the justification of police procedures outside the law as a form of guaranteeing the capture of criminals. For this, we use the LAPOP (Latin American Public Opinion Project, Vanderbilt University) database from the year 2008. Analyzing the data using probit estimations, we observe that the approval of vigilante justice is related to the experience and particular situation of the respondent. In this sense, having beenvictimized in the last months and feeling unsafe in his or her own neighborhood increase the probability of taking that position regarding vigilantism. On the other side, sticking to police procedures is more strongly related to the general political beliefs and the level of concern for the respondents' insecurity. These findings indicate that the formation of these beliefs has a differential dynamic and that when actions outside the law have to be justified, this is distinguished based on the type of involved action and the actorwho carries it forward.

Understanding policy persistence—The case of police drug detection dog policy in NSW, Australia

BackgroundSignificant research attention has been given to understanding the processes of drug policy reform. However, there has been surprisingly little analysis of the persistence of policy in the face of opposition and evidence of ineffectiveness. In this article we analysed just such a case – police drug detection dog policy in NSW, Australia. We sought to identify factors which may account for the continuation of this policy, in spite of counter-evidence and concerted advocacy. MethodsThe analysis was conducted using the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). We collated documents relating to NSW drug detection dog policy from 1995 to 2016, including parliamentary records (NSW Parliament Hansard), government and institutional reports, legislation, police procedures, books, media, and academic publications. Texts were then read, coded and classified against the core dimensions of the ACF, including subsystem actors and coalitions, their belief systems and resources and venues employed for policy debate. ResultsThree coalitions were identified as competing in the policy subsystem: security/law and order, civil liberties and harm reduction. Factors that aided policy stability were the continued dominance of the security/law and order coalition since they introduced the drug dog policy; a power imbalance enabling the ruling coalition to limit when and where the policy was discussed; and a highly adversarial policy subsystem. In this context even technical knowledge that dogs infringed civil liberties and increased risks of overdose were readily downplayed, leading to only incremental changes in implementation rather than policy cessation or wholesale revision. ConclusionThe analysis provides new insights into why the accumulation of new evidence and advocacy efforts can be insufficient to drive significant policy change. It poses a challenge for the evidence-based paradigm suggesting that in highly adversarial policy subsystems new evidence is unlikely to generate policy change without broader subsystem change, such as reducing the adversarial nature and/or providing new avenues for cross-coalition learning.

Extreme cases and the criminal justice system: responses to a traumatic sexual assault in India

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses criminal justice responses that came on the heels of a traumatic sexual assault in public space in India. The incident referred to as “Nirbhaya,” drew attention to the nation as well as the world the violence against women who on the one hand find themselves in public spaces designed for all denizens in this globalised world, yet, subject to sexploitation and devoid of safeguards and equal protection. In this paper we catalogue modifications to Indian criminal justice as a result of the Nirbhaya case to illustrate how extreme events help drive changes to the system in a large democracy, yet an economically developing one. More specifically, we address changes that have been incorporated in criminal laws, police procedures, and crime prevention efforts, as well as assess the degree to which these efforts have been effective.

Shocking the Conscience: Public Responses to Police Use of the “Mr. Big” Technique

ABSTRACTThe Mr. Big technique is an elaborate Canadian undercover approach used to elicit confessions from suspects. The process involves befriending the suspect, involving him or her in a (fake) criminal gang, and through enticement, bribes, promises of future employment, threats of abandonment and (often) violence, eliciting a confession to the crime of interest. At Canadian law, evidence procured through police tactics that “shock the conscience” of the community must be ruled inadmissible. Our research explored the extent to which Mr. Big tactics are perceived as shocking. A sample of 120 participants rated vignettes of seven real Mr. Big cases as to how shocking the procedures were. Results indicated that the degree to which participants viewed the police procedures as atypical, or involving a potential breach of suspect rights, were related to increased shock.

The impact of severe lung disease on evidential breath analysis collection

BackgroundIt is a legal requirement to supply a breath analysis sample when requested by Police at roadside checkpoints. The current device requires a 1L sample at 8L·min−1. Court disputes commonly attribute respiratory disease for failure to produce a sample. ObjectiveTo determine whether respiratory disease aetiology and/or severity precludes an adequate breath sample using a modern evidential breath analyser. MethodsSubjects performed breath analysis following standard Police procedure. Three efforts within 15min were allowed and any reasons for failure recorded. Results24 subjects with interstitial lung disease (ILD) and 26 subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were studied and met minimum respiratory function criteria as per device specifications. 18 ILD subjects (75%) and 24 COPD subjects (92%) were able to provide a sample. All subjects with a vital capacity below 1.5L were unable to provide a sample. DiscussionIn the balance of probabilities most patients with lung disease are able to supply an evidential breath sample. The exception is a very severe disease, particularly in volume limited patients.

Procedural & Distributive Justice and Amenability to Psychological Treatment in Juvenile Delinquents

This study was aimed at testing a structural model that analyzed the relationship between procedural and distributive justice and the amenability of psychological treatment for juvenile delinquents. Ninety-two adolescents receiving treatment in detention and community facilities following a judge’s sentence constituted the sample. Participants responded to a questionnaire including items that investigated the perception of police and judicial procedures and decisions, and the acceptance of psychological treatments. A structural equation model was specified and tested. Three factors were indicated “perception of police treatment”, “procedural justice”, “distributive justice”, and “amenability of the treatment”. It was expected a direct relationship between procedural and distributive justice and distributive justice and amenability of the treatment. It was also projected a direct relationship between distributive justice and amenability of the treatment. Results revealed that the adolescent’s positive perception of the judicial procedure predicted positively the amenability of both the treatment and the distributive justice system. Perception of the police treatment had an effect on procedural justice. Those findings seem to indicate that if adolescents perceive a fair police treatment and procedure, their acceptance of the treatment and sentence will be more likely. Such an outcome, in turn, could help in their reintegration to society.

Making further inquiries: Policing in context in Brixton and Khayelitsha

Only rarely do inquiries into policing investigate the social context within which it takes place. This article looks at two inquiries that chose to take on this task: Lord Scarman’s into the Brixton disorders in London in April 1981; and Justice Kate O’Regan and Advocate Vusi Pikoli’s into the current state of policing in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape. It argues that they should be applauded for doing so, but draws attention to how difficult it can be to persuade governments to address the deep-rooted social and economic problems associated with crises in policing rather than focus on reforming the police institution, its policies, procedures and practices.

Confidently Wrong: Police Endorsement of Psycho-Legal Misconceptions

Public beliefs about psychological issues relevant to the legal system have been demonstrated to often be misconceived, but the endorsement of such beliefs in law enforcement samples is largely unknown. This study was the first to compare psycho-legal beliefs between law enforcement officers and the general public in the UK. Participants were presented a 50-item questionnaire measuring five psycho-legal topics; police procedures, courts, tough on crime, mental illness, and memory and cognition. Despite direct involvement and relevant experience, law enforcement officers endorsed just as many empirically contradictory beliefs as those who were not law enforcement officers. Further, law enforcement officers were more confident in their responses. This research has implications for identifying areas of limited knowledge within police samples that can be targeted by police education.

LGBTQ-Affirming Policing: Tactics Generated by Law Enforcement Personnel

Law enforcement personnel (LEP) use a variety of tactics to perform their job duties. Although LEP often receive specialized training to work with ethnocultural minorities and are sometimes trained to work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) citizens, a clear articulation of LGBTQ-affirming police tactics has not yet been established. Using qualitative content analysis and a multiple case study approach, this project identified a variety of tactics generated by LEP in written surveys and group discussion of scenarios involving LGBTQ citizens. Results showed that across all scenarios, LEP were able to generate LGBTQ-affirming tactics, including both typical police procedures, as well as approaches specific to LGBTQ citizens. Non LGBTQ-affirming tactics typically reflected reluctance to adapt general procedures to meet the needs of LGBTQ citizens. The results of this study support the use of group-based scenario training to help LEP identify and adopt LGBTQ-affirming approaches. This study is significant because it represents a first step toward identifying best practices for LGBTQ-affirming police tactics.

The Legitimacy of the Police against a Background of European Empirical Research

The most general perspective on the legitimacy of a social institution relies upon theacceptance that the legitimised subject has a right to govern, and that the governed recognise that right. Understanding it this way, legitimacy can be analysed from twoperspectives: normative when it concerns objective criteria that permit evaluationwhen the institution is legitimate (normative foundations for its appointmentsand rules for its functioning); and empirical, when it pertains to the awareness ofcitizens that a particular institution is legitimate. Over the last 25 years, a numberof important works on the subject of legitimacy of the police were understood viaempirical means. Based upon these, one can differentiate two opposing approachestowards police-citizen relations. Although both rely on collaboration, they indicatealternate conditions which might determine this. The first approach instrumentallycharacterises itself as achieved by citizens using a cost-benefit analysis of the results ofworking with the police; citizens are more amenable to co-operation when the possiblebenefits are higher than the incurred costs. From this perspective, citizens accept theactivities of the police and declare a willingness to work with them, if in their eyes thepolice are applying realistic sanctions towards people who disturb the norms of the law,are fighting effectively against criminal and undesirable behaviours, and are treating allcitizens in an equal manner. Different motives for working with the police accompanycitizens in their attitudes to trials. In this case, co-operation results from internalrecognition of the legitimacy of the police by citizens. If citizens believe their policeto be legitimate, they will be more inclined to co-operate with them and obey the law.Legitimacy results here, above all, from the conviction that the police are fulfilling theirduty in a just procedural manner.The most empirically-supported research into attitudes about trials has beendetermined by the American model by T.R. Tyler. Legitimacy in his view assumes trusttowards police by citizens and their internal convictions about service in regards totheir recommendations. Understood this way, legitimacy is strongly determined by thefairness of police procedures, and is itself an essential influence on the willingness ofcitizens to co-operate with the police and their readiness to abide by their laws.After a period of domination in police research about the concept of legitimacybeing strongly linked to procedural fairness, there were attempts at revising andmodifying this theory. An alternative to Tyler’s definition of police legitimacy wasproposed by British researchers J. Jackson and B. Bradford. In their view, the police’slegitimacy is formed from three elements: internal conviction about police services,shared social value of the police, and the legality of the police’s activities. However,to independently differentiate, police legitimacy produces here the same effects as inTyler’s concept, and so determines for citizens their willingness to co-operate with thepolice and their readiness to abide by the law.Presented in the following study of research on the legitimacy of the police,a methodology is given for testing both of the previously-mentioned concepts, i.e.Tyler’s model, where trust of the police is a basic element of legitimacy, and Jacksonand Bradford’s model, where trust is treated as a separate social phenomenon, thoughit is linked with the legitimacy of many related factors. The fundamental goal of thepresented research determined however to attempt answering questions about whichtheoretical principles of the procedural model of police legitimacy, including former ARCHIVES OF CRIMINOLOGY 379foreign research within this scope, do they find applied in the Polish socio-culturalcontext. Polish research was undertaken in 2013 under the auspices of the internationalresearch project “Legitimacy Policing and Criminal Justice in Central and EuropeanEurope” amongst 374 law students from various academic centres via an online survey.The research had an exploratory character and was to establish a starting point forfurther research into the legitimacy of the police in Polish society.

Police Officer Schema of Sexual Assault Reports: Real Rape, Ambiguous Cases, and False Reports.

While extensive research has studied sexual assault reporting behaviors and described negative experiences with the criminal justice system among victim-survivors, fewer studies have explored police officer attitudes, knowledge, and thought processes that may affect victims' perceptions of negative interactions and unsatisfactory outcomes within reported sexual assault cases. This study explores police officer understanding of the definition of sexual assault and characteristics that influence their perceptions and response. Ten police officers were interviewed within one police department in a midsized city in the Great Lakes region. The study uses a modified grounded theory approach. Findings suggest that officers employ distinct schema of reported sexual assaults. Case characteristics, perceived credibility of the victim, and types of evidence formed categorizations of false reports, ambiguous cases, and legitimate sexual assaults. Police officers describe the ways in which perceptions of the case may or may not influence the response and point to areas for improvement within police procedure. The study findings provide insight into recommendations for improved police interviewing and response to reported sexual assaults.

Registered Replication Report

Trying to remember something now typically improves your ability to remember it later. However, after watching a video of a simulated bank robbery, participants who verbally described the robber were 25% worse at identifying the robber in a lineup than were participants who instead listed U.S. states and capitals—this has been termed the “verbal overshadowing” effect (Schooler & Engstler-Schooler, 1990). More recent studies suggested that this effect might be substantially smaller than first reported. Given uncertainty about the effect size, the influence of this finding in the memory literature, and its practical importance for police procedures, we conducted two collections of preregistered direct replications (RRR1 and RRR2) that differed only in the order of the description task and a filler task. In RRR1, when the description task immediately followed the robbery, participants who provided a description were 4% less likely to select the robber than were those in the control condition. In RRR2, when the description was delayed by 20 min, they were 16% less likely to select the robber. These findings reveal a robust verbal overshadowing effect that is strongly influenced by the relative timing of the tasks. The discussion considers further implications of these replications for our understanding of verbal overshadowing.

Police Stop-and-Frisk Practices: An Examination of Factors That Affect Officers' Decisions to Initiate a Stop-and-Frisk Police Procedure

The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that affect an officer's decision to initiate a stop-and-frisk procedure. The primary objective of this study is to rank-order the typical reasons that were reported by police officers and that were deterministic on initiating a police stop procedure. The second objective of this research is to test whether there is empirical evidence suggesting racialised policing. The analyses are based on data that were originally collected and archived by the New York Police Department on stop-and-frisk police practices in 2006. The analyses in this study show that the top five highest rank-ordered reasons for initiating a police stop were high-crime area, time of day fits the crime incident, fugitive movements by the suspects, casing a victim or location, and proximity to a crime scene. Factors that influenced an officer's decision to frisk the suspect after the initial stop were suspect's gender, followed by suspect's physical proximity to the crime scene, suspect's evasive responses to questions and race.

Performance evaluation of on-site oral fluid drug screening devices in normal police procedure in Germany

There is a need for quick and reliable methods for rapid screening of drug-influenced drivers on the roadside by police. Because the window of detection in oral fluid is more similar to blood than to urine, this matrix should therefore be appropriate for screening procedures. The performance of the Rapid STAT® (Mavand Solution GmbH, Mössingen, Germany), DrugWipe5/5+® (Securetec Detektions-Systeme AG, Brunnthal, Germany) and Dräger DrugTest® 5000 (Draeger Safety AG & Co. KGaA, Luebeck, Germany) on-site oral fluid devices was evaluated with random oral fluid specimens from car drivers in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Additionally, some drivers were checked using an on-site urine device (DrugScreen®, NAL von Minden, Regensburg, Germany). During a 11-month period, 1.212 drivers were tested. Both OF and urine on-site tests were compared to serum results.The following sensitivities were obtained by the oral fluid devices: THC 71% (DrugWipe®), 87% (Dräger), 91% (RapidSTAT); opiates 95% (Dräger), 100% (DrugWipe®, RapidSTAT®); amphetamine 84% (DrugTest® 5000), 90% (RapidSTAT®), 100% (DrugTest® 5000); methamphetamine 50% (DrugTest® 5000), 100% (RapidSTAT®); cocaine 76% (DrugTest® 5000), 100% (DrugWipe®, RapidSTAT®); methadone 33–63%, and benzodiazepines 0–33% (both with a low number of positives). THC specificity was especially low (29% [DrugWipe®] and 47% [DrugTest® 5000]) due to low cut-off concentrations. These data were similar to those obtained from the literature (e.g., DRUID project). The urine screening device showed a good sensitivity (THC 93%, opiate 94%, amphetamine 94%, methamphetamine 75% (low number of positives), cocaine 100%) and also an acceptable specificity (39%, 86%, 63%, 77%, 47%, respectively). Although oral fluid may be a useful matrix for on-site testing of drugged drivers, it is evident that oral fluid devices still show a lack of sensitivity (methamphetamine, benzodiazepines) and specificity (THC). Poor results for benzodiazepines may be explained by the small positive test number. Although the sensitivity for THC came out higher than compared to the literature, specificity is not yet satisfactory (only <90%). Furthermore, specificity was poor due to lowered cut-offs resulting in multiple false positive tests.

THE DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTION OF POLICE PROCEDURES BY THE ROMA AND LOCAL WOMEN

As recent foreign researches show that the victims of extremistic delict need on average more time to recover from the assault, and that they are less satisfied with the treatment of the police than other victims, the aim of this paper is to find the answer to the question on how differently the women victims from the Roma minority group (N=80) percieve police procedures from local women (N=80), both living in Istria, Republic of Croatia. The obtained indicators can confirm the set hypothesis. It can be concluded that there are differences in perception of police procedures by the Roma and local women, in the sense that the Roma women think that the police often exceed their authority, while local women, more often than the Roma ones, talk about some positive characteristics of police procedures and personal characteristics of police officers. This research represents a step toward the role of female members of the Roma community from objects to subjects of criminal law and social security. The scientific and applicative value of this research’s results are the guidelines which it gives for the creation and implementation of measures for the protection of families, women, children and youths belonging to the Roma minority group of the Istrian County, Republic of Croatia.

Promoting trust in police: findings from a randomised experimental field trial of procedural justice policing

This paper reports findings from the world's first randomised experimental field trial of procedural justice policing. We tested whether or not procedural justice could be used by police agencies during short, routine traffic stops to increase public trust and confidence in police. Using survey data from 2762 Australian drivers who had been exposed to either a procedural justice script (experimental condition) or a standard police procedure (control condition), it was found that trust and confidence in police was higher in the experimental condition. This was even the case after respondents' demographic background and general perceptions of police were taken into account. Similar effects were not found for drivers' obligation to obey police, nor their willingness to cooperate with police. Importantly, however, trust in police did predict both obligation to obey police and the willingness to cooperate with police. The findings have important implications for procedural justice research and policing practice.

Domestic Violence: Firearm Seizures &amp; Lethality Assessments: Enhancing the Police Response

Over the years, thousands of women have been murdered by their intimate partners. In response, innumerable preventative programmes and evaluative studies have been conducted to combat and mitigate the occurrences of this heinous crime. Nonetheless, a review of the literature reveals relatively few programmes and studies focused on the role of police in conducting structured assessments pertaining to the potential lethality for the individual circumstances of repeat victims of domestic abuse. In addition, firearm removal programmes also appear to be underutilised by police agencies. This paper offers recommendations for enhancing police procedures related to protecting women from the most severe forms of domestic violence, especially those involving firearms because they tend to be the most fatal. It is the position of this paper that law enforcement agencies should encourage officers to seize prohibited DV offender firearms as well as conduct some degree of risk assessment to help identify those women most at risk of serious bodily injury or death as a result of a DV attack. This paper also asserts that police officers should conduct some form of victim lethality assessment when responding to repeat domestic violence calls because these assessments are designed to detect certain conditions in a DV victim's environment that are indicative of a potential fatal outcome. In support of these positions, this paper reviews academic literature, scholarly studies, federal programmes, and at least one municipal law enforcement effort that employed firearm removal and lethality assessment. This paper concludes that such a programme can be effective in reducing domestic violence homicides. Research has demonstrated there are significant lethality indicators that may predict when certain women are more at risk of being killed by their abuser. In addition, danger assessments can enhance officers handling DV situations if they are given the additional tool of conducting these on-scene lethality assessments. With relatively little training, officers can be apprised of lethality indicators and be provided a list of questions that can direct their attention to the more lethal DV cases while simultaneously educating victims regarding their risk of a fatal outcome. If one life is saved, it would certainly be worth implementing such programmes.

Domestic Violence of the Police Procedure of Problem and Improvement

Domestic Violence of the Police Procedure of Problem and Improvement

Face Recognition and Description Abilities in People with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are as likely as the general population to find themselves in the situation of having to identify and/or describe a perpetrator's face to the police. However, limited verbal and memory abilities in people with ID might prevent them to engage in standard police procedures. Two experiments examined face recognition and description abilities in people with mild intellectual disabilities (mID) and compared their performance with that of people without ID. Experiment 1 used three old/new face recognition tasks. Experiment 2 consisted of two face description tasks, during which participants had to verbally describe faces from memory and with the target in view. Participants with mID performed significantly poorer on both recognition and recall tasks than control participants. However, their group performance was better than chance and they showed variability in performance depending on the measures introduced. The practical implications of these findings in forensic settings are discussed.

POLICE PROCEDURE AS A POSSIBLE INDICATOR OF INSTITUTIONAL EXTREMISM

Summary A hypothesis was formulated that the Roma from the Istrian County, The Republic of Croatia, will estimate the police procedures toward them are different in certain aspects from the procedures toward the local people because of the fact that they are members of one of minority groups and that the facts stated can be indicators of institutional extremism. The results indicate that there are differences in the evaluation of police procedure between the Roma and the remaining Istrian population. The scientific and practical value of the results of this work provides the guidelines for the creation and implementation of the measures for the prevention of racism, intolerance and segregation, whereby a special role is played by the state bodies, primarily of the Istrian County and the local government.