Demeanor and Arrest: Additional Evidence from Previously Unpublished Data

Abstract

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 The present research further probes this issue using previously unpublished data.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.

Procedural Justice and Order Maintenance Policing: A Study of Inner‐City Young Men’s Perceptions of Police Legitimacy

“…In addition to the potentially deleterious effects that such disrespectful treatment of citizens may have on police legitimacy, this kind of behavior also increases the likelihood that police-citizen encounters will be rife with animosity emanating from both parties. Prior research shows that citizen demeanor can influence police actions and, therefore, help determine whether an encounter is civil or confrontational (Engel et al, 2000;Klinger, 1996;Lundman, 1996;Worden & Shepard, 1996). This finding indicates that people, such as the young men under study here, who are subjected to routine maltreatment at the hands of police may begin approaching police encounters with an uncooperative demeanor.…”

“…The likelihood of these extralegal factors seeping into criminal justice agents' decision-making is greatest when legal factors (e.g., offense seriousness, evidence of criminal activity) are murkiest (Kalven & Zeisel, 1966;Reskin & Visher, 1986;Spohn & Cederblom, 1991). An abundant body of knowledge has established that police decisions can be affected by a suspect's race and/or social standing (Alpert, Dunham, & MacDonald, 2004;Mastrofski, Reisig, & McCluskey, 2002;Skogan, 2005), gender (Brunson & Miller, 2006a), demeanor (Engel, Sobol, & Worden, 2000;Klinger, 1996;Lundman, 1996;Worden & Shepard, 1996), and the environment wherein a given police-citizen encounter transpires (Fagan & Davies, 2000;Klinger, 1997;Meehan & Ponder, 2002;Terrill & Reisig, 2003). This gives rise to decision-making that citizens may perceive as arbitrary even when officers have no intention to discriminate and are unaware that they are conveying such an impression.…”

Quantifying law in police-citizen encounters

“…(I did 12Indeed, the validity of extant findings that extralegal variables--particularly demeanor--exert independent effects on police action is currently a source of considerable controversy in criminology. See Klinger (1994Klinger ( , 1996a, Lundman (1994Lundman ( , 1996a, and Worden and Shepard (1996) for details. 13Researchers inclined to treat each individual in encounters with multiple citizens as a separate unit of analysis (e.g., Mastrofski, et aL, 1995) could use separate FAS scores for each individual.…”

Mirage of Police Reform: Procedural Justice and Police Legitimacy

“…David Klinger (1994) first questioned the measurement of demeanor in previous research, arguing that prior studies had failed to adequately isolate and control for crime committed by suspects during their encounter with police (in particular, crime against the police). Although subsequent research found that the original findings regarding the influence of demeanor hold (e.g., Lundman 1994Lundman , 1996Klinger 1995Klinger , 1996), Klinger's critique pushed research to exercise greater care in the conceptualization and measurement of demeanor (and its separation from suspect resistance). However, despite all of the research conducted to date, the demeanor/ resistance question has still not been conclusively answered.…”