The Criminal Police Officer: Understanding Factors That Predict Police Crime in the United States

Abstract

Although police decision making and behavior always face intense public scrutiny, officers’ criminal lifestyles have largely been ignored in national debates and discussions. The primary focus of this study was to understand factors that predicted police criminality. To achieve this objective, we analyzed a nationally representative dataset on officers who were arrested from 2005 to 2011 using advanced statistical approaches. Results obtained using multilevel modeling demonstrate the predictive effects of officer and agency characteristics in explaining police criminality. Specifically, findings reveal differences in types of crimes committed by the officers. For example, male officers engage in crimes that are entirely different from those committed by their female counterparts. Likewise, on-duty officers tend to criminally behave differently from their off-duty counterparts. Furthermore, agency-level factors such as type of agency, number of sworn officers, and location of the agency predict police crime. Current findings highlight the importance of policies that would directly address criminality in law enforcement.