NCJ Number
156379
Journal
Law and Society Review Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Dated: (1994) Pages: 113-148
Date Published
1994
Length
36 pages
Annotation
The authors drew on expectancy theory in industrial and organizational psychology to explain arrest productivity for driving under the influence (DUI) in a sample of Pennsylvania police officers.
Abstract
Expectancy theory is a cognitive model of motivation and performance based on workers' perceptions of their situation. Major elements of expectancy theory were estimated in a regression model: the police officer's capability and opportunity for DUI enforcement (performance-reward expectancy), the instrumentality of DUI enforcement behavior for the police officer, and the reward-cost balance associated with making DUI arrests. These factors accounted for 26 percent of residual variance in the number of DUI arrests made annually once organizational effects had been removed. Relationships were as expectancy theory predicted, except for instrumentality variables which showed a negative relationship to arrest productivity. This was due largely to the orientation of a small number of "rate busters" whose exceptionally high arrest rate and negative attitudes toward peers and the police department hierarchy made them a distinct group that accounted for a disproportionate number of arrests. Implications of the research findings for organizational change and police officer arrest productivity are examined. 65 references, 21 footnotes, 3 tables, and 1 figure