Individual Differences, Situational Constraints, and Police Shooting Incidents

Inn, Andres; Wheeler, Alan C.

doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1977.tb02414.x

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Analyzing 7 years of shooting data from the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, Sherman and Blumberg (1981) found that officer education appeared to have no significant effect on discharging firearms when controlling for assignment, age, and length of service. 5 Four years earlier, Inn and Wheeler (1977) produced similar results, finding that college education did not cause significant differences in shooting incidents among officers. In addition, Hayden (1981) found that individual officer characteristics, including education, did not predict the decision to use deadly force.…”

Section: The Effect Of Officer Education On the Use Of Forcementioning

confidence: 78%

The Effect of Higher Education on Police Behavior

2010

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In the past, police scholars have examined the impact of higher education on different measures of officer behavior, most notably arrest and the use of force. Much of this prior work has suffered from poor methodologies, such as inadequate samples and the inability to control for theoretically relevant variables. In addition, previous inquires have focused on but one single behavior per study. In an attempt to overcome some of these limitations, we examine the effect of officer education on three key decisionmaking points (i.e., arrest, search, and use of force) by relying on observational data from two medium-sized cities.The results of the analysis indicate that higher education carries no influence over the probability of an arrest or search occurring in a police— suspect encounter. College education does, however, significantly reduce the likelihood of force occurring. Results may be due to the amount of discretion officer’s exercise in pursuing these behaviors. Recommendations for future inquiries revolving around theory development and the incorporation of research from the field of education are presented, as well as varying policy implications.

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Section: The Effect Of Officer Education On the Use Of Forcementioning

confidence: 78%