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There is a paucity of data available relating to the misconduct of police officers in larger policing agencies, typically resulting in case study approaches and limited insight into the factors associated with serious misconduct. This paper seeks to contribute to the emerging knowledge base on police misconduct through analysis of 28,429 complaints among 3,830 officers in the New York Police Department, between 2000 and 2019.

This study utilized a data set consisting of officer and complainant demographics, and officer complaint records. Machine learning analytics were employed, specifically random forest, to consider which variables were most associated with serious misconduct among officers that committed misconduct. Partial dependence plots were employed among variables identified as important to consider the points at which misconduct was most, and least likely to occur.

Prior instances of serious misconduct were particularly associated with further instances of serious misconduct, while remedial action did not appear to have an impact in preventing further misconduct. Inexperience, both in rank and age, was associated with misconduct. Specific prior complaints, such as minor use of force, did not appear to be particularly associated with instances of serious misconduct. The characteristics of the complainant held more importance than the characteristics of the officer.

The ability to analyze a data set of this size is unusual and important to progressing the knowledge area regarding police misconduct. This study contributes to the growing use of machine learning in understanding the police misconduct environment, and more accurately tailoring misconduct prevention policy and practice.

This paper explores the applicability of environmental theories to understanding patterns of police misconduct. In turn, it aims to offer a method for identifying prevention techniques that can be practically applied by policing agencies.

The study empirically examined 84 substantiated matters of police misconduct in Queensland, Australia. The matters were content-analysed for elements of the first level of the crime triangle. These elements were then analysed to identify their relationships with the situational precipitators that initiated the misconduct; proactive misconduct and situational misconduct.

The two types of initiating misconduct had differing relationships with the crime triangle elements. Therefore, specific prevention techniques can be tailored by policing agencies to address and prevent each type of misconduct more successfully. The paper discusses these findings in terms of preventative measures according to the second preventative level of the crime triangle and situational crime prevention techniques.

This paper provides an alternative approach to understanding and preventing police misconduct by exploring the applicability of environmental theories. It finds that environmental theories offer a feasible approach for policing agencies to understand and tailor prevention of police misconduct in their jurisdictions.

Misconduct and deviance amongst police officers are substantial issues in policing around the world. This study aims to propose a prediction model for serious police misconduct by variation of the theory of planned behaviour.

Using two data sets, one quantitative and one qualitative, provided by an Australian policing agency, a random forest analysis and a qualitative content analysis was performed. Results were used to inform and extend the framework of the theory of planned behaviour. The traditional and extended theory of planned behaviour models were then tested for predictive utility.

Each model demonstrated noteworthy predictive power, however, the extended model performed particularly well. Prior instances of minor misconduct amongst officers appeared important in this rate of prediction, suggesting that remediation of problematic behaviour was a substantial issue amongst misconduct prone officers.

It is an important implication for policing agencies that prior misconduct was predictive of further misconduct. A robust complaint investigation and remediation process are pivotal to anticipating, remediating and limiting police misconduct, however, early intervention models should not be viewed as the panacea for police misconduct.

This research constitutes the first behavioural model for police misconduct produced in Australia. This research seeks to contribute to the field of behavioural prediction amongst deviant police officers, and offer an alternative methodology for understanding these behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the utility of general strain theory in explaining the relationship between organizational stress and police deviance.

Data were collected from a non-random sample of 1,389 police officers in three large cities in Texas. The survey instrument used for this research was the Police Work Experience Survey. Results from regression analyses are presented.

Findings showed that the organization influenced police misconduct, but misconduct was dependent upon the specific type of strain encountered.

Results show that instances of police deviance depend on the types of strains encountered. Additionally, anger plays a significant role when examining organizational strain. Police administrators should move to reduce organizational strains to reduce instances of police misconduct.

Currently, there is very little theoretical work in understanding police misconduct. And no studies have drawn linkages between organizational stressors and self-reported officer misconduct. At a time when police behavior is at the forefront of the social policy reform, the examination of potential correlates of police misconduct is the first step toward controlling it.

The purpose of this paper is to critique contemporary tools for assessing and managing the risk of police misconduct and suggest directions for their improvement.

The paper draws on extant literature, synthesizing several lines of inquiry to summarize what the authors know about patterns of police misconduct, and what the authors know about assessing and managing police misconduct. Then the paper draws from the literature on offender risk assessment in criminal justice to draw lessons for assessing and managing the risk of police misconduct.

The authors found that there is good reason to believe that the tools used to assess the risk of misconduct make suboptimal predictions about officer performance because they rely on limited information of dubious value, but also that the predictive models on which the tools are based could be improved by better emulating procedures for assessing offenders’ risk of recidivism.

Future research should examine cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns of misconduct and associations between risk-related outputs and enforcement activity, develop better measures of criterion variables, and evaluate the predictive accuracy of risk assessment tools.

Police managers should make better use of the information available to them, improve the quantity and quality of information if feasible, and cooperate in the necessary research.

This paper offers a new synthesis of extant research to demonstrate the limitations of contemporary provisions for assessing the risk of police misconduct, and potential avenues for useful research and improved practice.

Many examinations of police misconduct involve case study methodologies applied to a single agency, or a handful of agencies. Consequently, there is little evidence regarding the types of misconduct across agencies, or the impact of department-level characteristics on the nature and prevalence of officer deviance. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap using statewide data of over 1,500 charges of police misconduct filed with the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) from 2000 to 2011.

This study examines variation in the prevalence and forms of misconduct across 100+ agencies based on agency type and size. Difference scores were calculated for every agency in the state to determine whether an agency’s level of misconduct was proportionate to the number of officers employed by that agency. AZPOST data were supplemented with Law Enforcement Management and Statistics data to identify organizational correlates of misconduct in agencies generating disproportionately low and high levels of misconduct.

Results identify variation in officer misconduct across different types of agencies. Tribal agencies generally experience higher rates of domestic violence and drug/alcohol-related incidents. Smaller agencies have more misconduct allegations involving supervisors. Organizational characteristics including pre-hiring screening, accountability mechanisms and community relationships are associated with lower levels of agency misconduct.

The use of AZPOST data enables a statewide examination of misconduct while accounting for organizational context. This study identifies organizational features that might serve to protect agencies against disproportionate rates of officer misbehavior.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between social control (adult social bonds) and police misconduct.

Multiple regression methods are used to analyze survey data from a sample of 101 first-line police supervisors. A consequence-based measure is used to capture social bonds and workplace deviance is measured as the self-reported likelihood of future misconduct.

Police supervisors reported varying likelihoods of future workplace deviance across four acts of misconduct. Social control was found to be negatively related to three of the four acts, which provides general support for the theory and study hypothesis.

The results are discussed in terms of research and policy implications.

Acknowledging important gaps in the literature, this study explores the validity of social control theory for explaining police misconduct.

Several recent incidents of highly publicized police misconduct in the United States have intensified interest in controlling police behavior. Administrative control of police use of force is difficult because police officers are often the primary and most credible witnesses to police misconduct, effectively giving them enforcement power over rules they are subject to; police cooperation as both rule followers and rule enforcers is necessary for effectively constraining police misconduct. The authors develop a framework for examining how organizational and institutional variables can affect individual decision making. Using this framework, the authors identify three avenues for reducing police misconduct – increasing the information generated by non-police sources, increasing the incentive for officers to cooperate with external enforcement efforts, and changing the expectations of officers regarding the attitudes and behaviors of their peers – and present a case study of Oakland California Police Department to illustrate the implications.

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of an analysis of official data on police misconduct, providing new insights into the nature and extent of police misconduct and in the official response to police misconduct. Next to the use of force and neglect of duty, private time misconduct is a major type of (alleged) misconduct although it is often discarded from theoretical conceptions of police misconduct. The analysis also showed that two‐thirds of internal investigations are the result of an internal report. This paper shows that official data on police misconduct can result in new insights in the nature and extent of police misconduct and is therefore a relevant source for academic analysis.

An analysis of official data on police misconduct is compared with theoretical notions of police misconduct, internal investigations and reliability of official data.

The implementation of a uniform Registration of Internal Investigations for all Dutch police forces has resulted in a clear increase in the number of registered investigations. This seems to be due to a combination of increased strictness on (alleged) misconduct and an improved quality of the registration. The analysis also showed that two‐thirds of the investigations are the result of an internal report. This places a new perspective on the so‐called code of silence among police officers. However, information on the extent and nature of complaints that are dealt with through the complaints procedure is lacking. The complaints procedure has also no formal relation with the disciplinary or criminal procedures.

Official data on police misconduct have to be viewed with a critical eye. The analyses showed however that the Dutch data seem fairly reliable. Additional research should place the official data in further perspective, e.g. through case studies and through a control of the registration with the files of the Bureaux of Internal Investigations. Finally, a comparison with official data in other countries is needed.

The Dutch police should improve its complaints procedures and the complaints registration.

Academic analysis of police misconduct is often limited to case studies of scandals or focuses on citizen complaints. The paper gives a broader perspective by using official data.

The purpose of this paper is to detect and examine any trends in the self-reported causation of misconduct among officers being considered for dismissal.

The data utilised in this study consisted of show cause notice (SCN) responses. In the process of being considered for dismissal, officers’ may offer the causes of or mitigating factors to their misconduct as a means of avoiding dismissal. This study utilised these responses as a data source. Data collection occurred between January 2013 and October 2016, resulting in a cohort of n=100 responses comprised of between 1 and ~1,000 pages of free text. Qualitative methods were preferred, a conventional content analysis was performed with coding categories derived from SCN response text.

The results of this study indicate noteworthy levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related mental health issues amongst this cohort, as well as pervasive financial and workplace stressors, which officers frequently link to the causation of their misconduct. Of particular note is the consistent co-occurrence of work-related stressors and health issues, most commonly through formally diagnosed PTSD.

This study indicates an opportunity for support services to impact positively on mental health and stress, and subsequently misconduct among police officers.

There is still very little understanding of the causation of misconduct among police officers. This is the first time that this data have been utilised in any form of the research, it provides valuable insight into a potential alternative method of addressing misconduct to reactionary investigative action.