Scholarly study of the factors affecting homicide clearances is at the same point as scholarly study of police patrol officers more than 50 years ago. In particular, major organizing frameworks provide fundamentally contradictory images, and only a handful of multivariate studies exist. The present research partially remedies these problems by advancing a more complete conceptual framework and then by using that framework to guide multivariate analysis of the factors affecting the clearance of 802 homicides in Columbus, Ohio, between 1984 and 1992. Consistent with the more complete conceptual framework, there is strong support for the argument that the visibility of homicide and the singular importance of homicide clearances cause homicide detectives to work aggressively to clear all homicides irrespective of where they occur or the characteristics of homicide victims. Also consistent with the framework, the authors find no support for previous arguments that detective experience and workload affect homicide clearances.

Are African‐American men, compared with white men, more likely to report being stopped by police for traffic law violations? Are African‐American men and Hispanic drivers less likely to report that police had a legitimate reason for the stop and less likely to report that police acted properly? This study answers these questions using citizen self‐reports of their traffic stop encounters with the police. Net of other important explanatory variables, the data indicate that police make traffic stops for Driving While Black and male. In addition, African‐American and Hispanic drivers are less likely to report that police had a legitimate reason for the stop and are less likely to report that police acted properly. The study also discusses the validity of citizen self‐report data and outlines an agenda for future research.

In 1970, Donald Black and Albert J. Reiss, Jr. presented a series of eight propositions which they suggested provided the beginning of an empirical por trait of the policing of juveniles. The present study replicates their research, based upon comparative data separated by four years and many miles. Exten sive support for their earlier conclusions is reported, but a number of sub- propositions, clarifications, and extensions are also advanced. Several of the theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are then considered.

There is agreement in the literature on policing that demeanor and other extralegal variables help determine police decisions. A recent challenge to that agreement has been issued, however. Klinger (1994) has asserted that nearly all previous quantitative analyses of the effects of demeanor and other extralegal variables are fatally pawed because they failed to limit demeanor to spoken words and failed to control for crime. He concluded that all previous research is suspect until additional analyses of the data sets used in previous research and new observational research are presented. This research starts the first of these tasks by reporting additional analyses of data from three previously published papers based on the Midwest City Police‐Citizen Encounters Study. With demeanor limited to spoken words and crime partially controlled, the reanalyzed data suggest that the effects of demeanor depend on how demeanor is represented and, to a lesser extent, model specification. Consequently, caution with respect to existing reports of the effects of demeanor and other extralegal variables remains necessary. In addition, carefully controlling for crime and limiting demeanor to spoken words may not be the only problems surrounding efforts to assess the effects of demeanor. This research suggests that multiple representations of demeanor and more fully specified models may be important as well.

Across more than four decades of previous research, social scientists have reported that demeanor and other extralegal factors shape police actions such as arrest. Recently, however, Klinger has asserted that all previous research is suspect because it failed to control for crime and failed to limit demeanor to legally permissible words and displays of hostility. The present research further probes this issue using previously unpublished data. The key findings are several. Demeanor matters when it is limited to legally permissible words and displays of hostility and when crime is partially controlled, although the effects of demeanor vary with how it is represented. Other extralegal variables, especially race and class, also matter. This analysis therefore provides little reason for questioning the agreement reached over four decades that demeanor and other extralegal variables shape police actions.