Mitchell B. Chamlin and Beth A. Sanders
The purpose of this article is to examine the causal relationship between crime rate measures (per 100,000 population) and police force size (full‐time employees per 100,000…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to examine the causal relationship between crime rate measures (per 100,000 population) and police force size (full‐time employees per 100,000) within Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The data are annual, covering the years 1930 to 2004.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors specify and estimate ARIMA and error correction models to examine the bivariate association between police force strength and total, property, and personal crime rates for a large, mid‐western city.
Findings
Consistent with past research, the bivariate ARIMA analyses yield no evidence of a short‐term association between police force size and crime. However, the parameter estimates from error correction models indicate that changes in the level of crime have a longer‐term impact on police force strength.
Research limitations/implications
This study focuses on a single municipality. Hence, before one can generalize to cities as a whole, the findings need to be replicated in other jurisdictions. Nonetheless, the findings do suggest that municipalities are more responsive to changes in the level of crime than prior ARIMA analyses seemed to indicate.
Practical implications
The findings point to the conclusion that, when studying causal processes that operate over time, one must be careful not to remove long run information from the data in the attempt to control for the spurious effects of autocorrelation.
Originality/value
This paper represents the first attempt to apply error correction models to the examination of the longitudinal relationship between crime and police force size.
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Mitchell B. Chamlin and Beth A. Sanders
Consistent with both conflict and economic theories of crime control, recent research indicates that there is a linear, positive association between the racial composition of…
Abstract
Purpose
Consistent with both conflict and economic theories of crime control, recent research indicates that there is a linear, positive association between the racial composition of cities and black employment as law enforcement officers. The purpose of this paper is to distinguish between these competing explanations for variations in the racial make‐up of police departments and examine the nonlinear effects of the relative population size of blacks on black police force size for a sample of US cities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper specifies and estimates four OLS regression equations to assess the linear and nonlinear effects of the percentage of blacks on black police force size for a sample of US cities.
Findings
As predicted by economic theory, the percentage of blacks exhibits a positive, nonlinear relationship with black police force size. Thus, it would appear that as their relative population size increases, blacks are able to translate their numerical advantage into pressure resources to secure coveted positions in law enforcement.
Research limitations/implications
While the demonstration of a significant, nonlinear relationship between the percentage of blacks and black police force size lends substantial credence to economic theory, it reveals nothing about the manner in which numerical advantage is converted into political clout and, ultimately, employment in law enforcement (or other municipal agencies). Clearly, if a better understanding this process us ti be gained, measures need to be identified and devised for the casual mechanisms that mediate the influence of the relative population size of blacks on black police force size.
Originality/value
This paper represents the first attempt to distinguish between economic and conflict explanations for variations in black police force size among municipalities.
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Andrew R.M. Fisher, Guðmundur Oddsson and Takeshi Wada
The purpose of this paper is to integrate conflict theory's class and race perspectives to explain police force size in large cities in the USA.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to integrate conflict theory's class and race perspectives to explain police force size in large cities in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
Data on US cities with populations of 250,000 or greater (n=64) are used to test whether class and/or racial factors impact police force size. The data are analyzed using OLS regression.
Findings
This study finds that class and race factors combine to impact police force size concurrently. By adjusting the model specifications of a recent article, which concludes police force size in large US cities is determined by racial factors and not class, this study shows that two class‐related factors – racial economic inequality and poverty – significantly influence police force size. Additionally, this analysis calls into question the importance of racial factors; specifically, the threat caused by minority presence and a city's history of racially coded violence.
Originality/value
Few conflict theorists have attempted to integrate class and race in order to explain police force size. The results of this study show that racial economic inequality interacts with poverty (class threat) and that they jointly affect police force size. This adds further nuance to the argument of the complex causal interaction of intersectionality and supports theoretical, methodological, and public policy shifts that blend class inequality and racial threat to explain police force size.
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Purpose – This chapter discusses two puzzles emerging from the literature on race and the jury. First, although changes in laws and institutional practices have dramatically…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter discusses two puzzles emerging from the literature on race and the jury. First, although changes in laws and institutional practices have dramatically expanded jury participation, it is far from clear what additional changes would create more racially representative juries. Second, the push for racial diversity on juries stems, in part, from a belief that composition is related to decision making; nonetheless, empirical research typically fails to link jury composition and case outcomes.Methodology/approach – Through a review of recent research, I identify the bases for these puzzles, and I consider ways to advance the body of work on race and the jury.Findings – Studies on jury representativeness should simultaneously consider both institution-level and individual-level predictors of participation, examining in particular whether and how attitudes toward jury service differ across racial and ethnic groups. The literature would benefit most from longitudinal and multi-jurisdictional studies. Researchers on race and jury decision making should examine the reason why racial differences in attitudes and individual verdicts may not have an impact on case outcomes. By studying deliberating groups, scholars should consider whether any racial differences in viewpoints are substantively small, whether differences observed are ultimately irrelevant to group discussions, or whether group dynamics limit the participation and influence of racial minorities on mixed-race juries.Originality/value – This chapter advances the literature on race and the jury by considering both questions of representativeness and decision making and by critically examining a number of assumptions and accepted wisdom.
Brenda Vose, J. Mitchell Miller and Stephanie Koskinen
This study aims to advance the existing analytic model to include staff allocation information at the district level. Maintaining adequate size of staff is essential to law…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to advance the existing analytic model to include staff allocation information at the district level. Maintaining adequate size of staff is essential to law enforcement agencies' ability to ensure social order, fight crime and, increasingly, deliver a widening range of social services. Review of the scientific literature on police size of force and staffing calculation models indicates that this line of inquiry (i.e. manpower analysis) is attentive to population size and workload demands but generally inattentive to how service demands are affected by community-level variables. Current staffing calculation models specify number of staff needed for a jurisdiction but do not inform the allocation of personnel across districts within the jurisdiction.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this problem, the current study illustrates an enhanced analytic model to provide law enforcement staffing recommendations for a southern coastal county. An integrated per capita-workload manpower analysis model first factors the minimum number of law enforcement deputies needed per population size served and recent history workload demands and then executes the six-step workload model process. This study enhances staffing analysis by adding an additional seventh arithmetical step indicating the staffing needs by districts across a jurisdiction.
Findings
The results from the integrated per capita-workload analysis indicate the need to hire additional deputies to meet current and future demands.
Originality/value
Discussion centers on the need to include drivers of police services identified but not measured in this study's application of the hybrid manpower analysis model and its replication potential.
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Anthony G. Vito, Vanessa Woodward Griffin, Gennaro F. Vito and George E. Higgins
The purpose of this paper is to draw a better understanding of the potential impact of daylight in officer decision making. In order to this, the authors test the veil of darkness…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw a better understanding of the potential impact of daylight in officer decision making. In order to this, the authors test the veil of darkness hypothesis, which theorizes that racial bias in traffic stops can be tested by controlling for the impact of daylight, while operating under the assumption that driver patterns remain constant across race.
Design/methodology/approach
Publicly available traffic-stop records from the Louisville Metro Police Department for January 2010–2019. The analysis includes both propensity score matching to examine the impact of daylight in similarly situated stops and coefficients testing to analyze how VOD may vary in citation-specific models.
Findings
The results show that using PSM following the VOD hypothesis does show evidence of racial bias, with Black drivers more likely to be stopped. Moreover, the effects of daylight significantly varied across citation-specific models.
Research limitations/implications
The data are self-reported from the officer and do not contain information on the vehicle make or model.
Practical implications
This paper shows that utilizing PSM and coefficients testing provides for a better analysis following the VOD hypothesis and does a better job of understanding the impact of daylight and the officer decision-making on traffic stops.
Social implications
Based on the quality of the data, the findings show that the use of VOD allows for the performance of more rigorous analyses of traffic stop data – giving police departments a better way to examine if racial profiling is evident.
Originality/value
This is the first study (to the researchers' knowledge) that applies the statistical analyses of PSM to the confines of the veil of darkness hypothesis.
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Brian Duncan and Stephen J. Trejo
Using microdata from the 2000 US Census, we analyze the responses of Mexican Americans to questions that independently elicit their “ethnicity” (or Hispanic origin) and their…
Abstract
Using microdata from the 2000 US Census, we analyze the responses of Mexican Americans to questions that independently elicit their “ethnicity” (or Hispanic origin) and their “ancestry.” We investigate whether different patterns of responses to these questions reflect varying degrees of ethnic attachment. For example, those identified as “Mexican” in both the Hispanic origin and the ancestry questions might have stronger ethnic ties than those identified as Mexican only in the ancestry question. How US-born Mexicans report their ethnicity/ancestry is strongly associated with measures of human capital and labor market performance. In particular, educational attainment, English proficiency, and earnings are especially high for men and women who claim a Mexican ancestry but report their ethnicity as “not Hispanic.” Further, intermarriage and the Mexican identification of children are also strongly related to how US-born Mexican adults report their ethnicity/ancestry, revealing a possible link between the intergenerational transmission of Mexican identification and economic status.
Natalie Brici, Chris Hodkinson and Gillian Sullivan‐Mort
There have been recent calls for research into the impulse shopping behaviours of adolescent consumers – an important topic because adolescents are: an increasingly important…
Abstract
Purpose
There have been recent calls for research into the impulse shopping behaviours of adolescent consumers – an important topic because adolescents are: an increasingly important market segment; a segment which has recently been empowered by the availability of easy credit; and which is increasingly targeted by strategic marketing collateral. This paper responds to the call by aiming to focus on the impulse shopping behaviours of adolescents.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is qualitative in nature and utilises lengthy mini focus group interviews of both adolescent and adult consumer shoppers. The verbatim transcriptions are then subjected to both manual and automated textual analysis to derive conceptual and thematic maps of each group's discussions in relation to impulse shopping.
Findings
Consistent with recent neuropsychological literature on adolescents, the findings show clear differences between adolescents and adults in relation to impulse shopping. Significant differences were found in the areas of antecedent moods, shopping purpose, and the range of perceived constraints which may moderate impulse shopping behaviour. The research also shows that impulse buying among adolescents is a behaviour which is undertaken often in response to stress and/or a need for mood amelioration and further that their conceptualisation of impulse shopping is only distantly related to a deficient set of perceived constraints when compared to adult shoppers.
Practical implications
This improved understanding of the bases of adolescent impulse shopping will assist in the design of educational programs to reduce the frequency of adolescent financial problems.
Social implications
There may be a reduction in the number of adolescents facing resultant financial hardship.
Originality/value
This is the first such study which reports the belief structures of adolescent impulse shoppers versus adults.