NCJ Number
186651
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 37 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2000 Pages: 221-236
Editor(s)
Mercer L. Sullivan
Date Published
May 2000
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article reviews Turk’s theory of norm resistance addressing police-citizen conflict premised on deference and challenges this theory to explore how deference reversals relate to police-citizen conflict.
Abstract
Turk’s theory of norm resistance describes how authority relations can be structured in ways that hold different probabilities of overt conflict between subjects and authorities. The theory is premised on social norms of deference. Turk’s argument is developed by advancing hypotheses about how deference by race and age reinforces or undermines the positional authority of police and the affects the probability of conflict with citizens. Domestic disturbance cases where police-citizen conflict occurred are compared to a similar sample where no conflict was recorded. The findings show that resistance is more likely when race and age deference norms counter the positional authority of officers. Notes and references