IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v37yi2p200-208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Identifying variation in police officer behavior between juveniles and adults

Author

Listed:
  • Brown, Robert A.
  • Novak, Kenneth J.
  • Frank, James

Abstract

This research explores the basis of officer decision making during encounters with juvenile suspects, and compares these encounters to those between police and adults. Specifically, two types of officer behavior are examined: the decision to arrest, and the exercise of authority. Officer behavior during encounters with juvenile suspects is compared and contrasted to encounters with adult suspects. Results from multivariate analyses find juveniles are significantly more likely to be arrested than adults; however, officers do not exercise different levels of authority during interactions with juvenile suspects. Results also indicate that the factors shaping officer behavior varies across age of suspect, namely, the community context and officer's race offer significantly different influences on juveniles than on adults. Other factors also influence officer discretion differently depending on the age of the suspect, most noteworthy being disrespectful demeanor. The results indicate that police officer behavior during encounters with juvenile suspects is very different than during encounters with adults.

Suggested Citation

  • Brown, Robert A. & Novak, Kenneth J. & Frank, James, 2009. "Identifying variation in police officer behavior between juveniles and adults," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 200-208, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:37:y::i:2:p:200-208
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047-2352(09)00022-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bannister, Andra J. & Carter, David L. & Schafer, Joseph, 2001. "A national police survey on the use of juvenile curfews," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 233-240.
    2. Darrell Steffensmeier & Chester L. Britt, 2001. "Judges' Race and Judicial Decision Making: Do Black Judges Sentence Differently?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 82(4), pages 749-764, December.
    3. Bayley, David H., 1986. "The tactical choices of police patrol officers," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 329-348.
    4. Hurst, Yolander G. & Frank, James, 2000. "How kids view cops The nature of juvenile attitudes toward the police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 189-202.
    5. Riksheim, Eric C. & Chermak, Steven M., 1993. "Causes of police behavior revisited," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 353-382.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sobol, James J., 2010. "Social ecology and police discretion: The influence of district crime, cynicism, and workload on the vigor of police response," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 481-488, July.
    2. Das, Aniruddha, 2022. "Childhood police encounters, social isolation and epigenetic age acceleration among older U.S. adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    3. Yin, Xinman & Zhao, Ruohui, 2024. "Policing juvenile delinquency in China: Exploring the influence of officer-related individual and organizational factors on discretionary police decision-making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    4. Pietenpol, Annelise M. & Morgan, Mark Alden & Wright, John Paul & Almosaed, Nora F. & Moghrabi, Sameera S. & Bashatah, Fawzia S., 2018. "The enforcement of crime and virtue: Predictors of police and Mutaween encounters in a Saudi Arabian sample of youth," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 110-121.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schafer, Joseph A. & Mastrofski, Stephen D., 2005. "Police leniency in traffic enforcement encounters: Exploratory findings from observations and interviews," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 225-238.
    2. MacDonald, John M. & Manz, Patrick W. & Alpert, Geoffrey P. & Dunham, Roger G., 2003. "Police use of force: examining the relationship between calls for service and the balance of police force and suspect resistance," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 119-127.
    3. Sun, Ivan Y., 2007. "Policing domestic violence: Does officer gender matter?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 581-595, December.
    4. Weitzer, Ronald, 2000. "White, black, or blue cops? Race and citizen assessments of police officers," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 313-324.
    5. Oren Gazal‐Ayal & Raanan Sulitzeanu‐Kenan, 2010. "Let My People Go: Ethnic In‐Group Bias in Judicial Decisions—Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(3), pages 403-428, September.
    6. Zhorayev, Olzhas, 2020. "Determinants of Trust in Police: A Cross-National Analysis," MPRA Paper 109068, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Kowalski, Brian R. & Lundman, Richard J., 2007. "Vehicle stops by police for driving while Black: Common problems and some tentative solutions," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 165-181.
    8. Jiang, Shanhe & Lambert, Eric G. & Liu, Jianhong & Saito, Toyoji, 2014. "Formal and informal control views in China, Japan, and the U.S," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 36-44.
    9. Ajilore, Olugbenga, 2017. "Is There a 1033 Effect? Police Militarization and Aggressive Policing," MPRA Paper 82543, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. David B. Wilson & David McClure & Charlotte Gill, 2011. "PROTOCOL: Systematic Review Protocol: Juvenile Curfew Policies' Effect on Criminal Behavior, Public Safety, and Victimization," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(1), pages 1-20.
    11. Crow, Matthew S. & Goulette, Natalie, 2022. "Judicial diversity and sentencing disparity across U.S. District Courts," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Franklin, Cortney A. & Fearn, Noelle E., 2008. "Gender, race, and formal court decision-making outcomes: Chivalry/paternalism, conflict theory or gender conflict?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 279-290, July.
    13. Fine, Adam D. & Rowan, Zachary & Simmons, Cortney, 2019. "Do politics Trump race in determining America's youths' perceptions of law enforcement?," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 48-57.
    14. Cody Jorgensen, 2018. "Badges and Bongs: Police Officers’ Attitudes Toward Drugs," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, October.
    15. Stephen D. Mastrofski, 2004. "Controlling Street-Level Police Discretion," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 593(1), pages 100-118, May.
    16. Amy Farrell & Geoff Ward & Danielle Rousseau, 2009. "Race Effects of Representation among Federal Court Workers: Does Black Workforce Representation Reduce Sentencing Disparities?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 623(1), pages 121-133, May.
    17. Brick, Bradley T. & Taylor, Terrance J. & Esbensen, Finn-Aage, 2009. "Juvenile attitudes towards the police: The importance of subcultural involvement and community ties," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 488-495, September.
    18. Engel, Robin Shepard, 2003. "Explaining suspects' resistance and disrespect toward police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 475-492.
    19. Ferdik, Frank & Frogge, George & Cooney, Mikaela, 2022. "Exploring further determinants of citizen satisfaction with the police: The role of strain," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    20. Shjarback, John A. & Nix, Justin, 2020. "Considering violence against police by citizen race/ethnicity to contextualize representation in officer-involved shootings," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:37:y::i:2:p:200-208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.