Purpose

Promote the use of multilevel modeling to refine theories of police discretion. Specifically, examine the simultaneous influence of situational factors, responding officers, and neighborhood context on arrests guided by a social-ecological framework.

Methods

Cross-classified models were used to assess the outcomes of 835,381 incidents responded to by 835 Phoenix Police officers in 388 census tracts.

Results

Situational, officer, and neighborhood factors all significantly influence arrests. Incident-level factors account for most of the variation, followed by officers, and neighborhoods. Incidents that resulted in arrest were more likely to involve victims, a greater number of responding officers, female officers, and college-educated officers. Arrests were more likely to occur in Hispanic and Black neighborhoods, even when controlling for situational and officer-level characteristics. Arrests were less likely to occur when officers were assigned to high crime precincts.

Conclusions

Multilevel models enable a comprehensive examination of police use of arrest using administrative data that are already being collected by police agencies. Through accounting for both officer and neighborhood-level influences, this strategy improves on prior theory testing in policing research. The results support elements of some theories, but conflict with others. These findings have important implications for police policies surrounding arrest and resource deployment.

中文翻译：

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了解警察逮捕决定：情境、警官和邻里特征对警察自由裁量权的影响

目的

推广使用多层次模型来完善警察自由裁量权理论。具体来说，在社会生态框架的指导下，检查情境因素、响应人员和社区环境对逮捕的同时影响。

方法

交叉分类模型用于评估 388 个人口普查区中 835 名凤凰城警察响应的 835,381 起事件的结果。

结果

情境、官员和邻里因素都对逮捕有显着影响。事件级别的因素占了大部分变化，其次是官员和社区。导致逮捕的事件更有可能涉及受害者、更多的响应警官、女性警官和受过大学教育的警官。逮捕更有可能发生在西班牙裔和黑人社区，即使在控制情境和官员级别特征的情况下也是如此。当警官被分配到犯罪率高的地区时，逮捕的可能性较小。

结论

多级模型可以使用警察机构已经收集的行政数据来全面检查警察使用逮捕的情况。通过考虑官员和社区级别的影响，该策略改进了警务研究中的先前理论测试。结果支持某些理论的要素，但与其他理论相冲突。这些发现对围绕逮捕和资源部署的警察政策具有重要意义。