Research Catalog

Title

Determinants of police behavior : a summary / by Daniel Cruse [and] Jesse Rubin.

Author

Cruse, Daniel.

Publication

Washington : U.S. Dept. of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U. S. Govt. Print. Off., 1973.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice

Description

iv, 18 p.; 26 cm.

Summary

Methodology for analyzing police behavior, specifically, the interrelationship of variables which affect police patrol performance. It has been suggested that a major determinant of the outcome of a police-citizen street contact is the physical and psychological condition of the officer at the time of the contact. As a preliminary step in testing this hypothesis, a pilot research project was conducted in Miami, Florida. This report discusses a methodology for analyzing police behavior and examines the interrelationship of variables which effect police patrol performance. Four Miami patrolmen were trained in behavioral observation techniques and a volunteer group of twelve radio - patrolmen to be observed was selected. The researchers developed a checklist to record police citizen interactions and constructed fatigue and stress scales to rate police performance. Among the behavioral determinants investigated, length of experience on the force - (for better or for worse) stood out as an influential factor. Other factors likely to affect police behavior were found to be the type of a call, the neighborhood, the shift, the day of the week, and number of citizens involved. Emphasizing the importance of the process of identification, the authors recommend that experienced officers should be selected for training men during the cadet probationary period. While this study is a novel approach to measuring police and contains some interesting results on the variable factors studied, the results might have been more meaningful if a larger sample had been used. The study did not clearly demonstrate the advantages of using police observers to record police behavior and did not specifically suggest means for measuring personality, stress of fatigue in a future study.

Series Statement

Criminal justice monograph.

Subjects

• Police
• Police > Florida > Miami
• Police-community relations

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- Development of the project and goals -- Findings from overall analysis of the data -- Analysis of specific parts of the data -- Personality testing -- Groupings or typologies of officers -- Recommendations for future research and study -- Recommendations for police selection and training -- Implications for police operations.

OCLC

• 49687309
• SCSB-10145010

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library