Judgement Policy and the Exercise of Police Discretion (From Political Science of Criminal Justice, P 122-134, 1983, Stuart Nagel et al, ed. - See NCJ-87705)

• NCJ Number: 87711
• Author(s): C Swanson; J Bolland
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 13 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: University of Kansas
• Sale Source: Charles C. Thomas
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

These study data show that in the use of their discretion police officers tend to use a small number of situational cues that are personally gratifying rather than a large number of situational cues relevant to specified law enforcement goals.

Abstract

To assess the relative importance of organizational, situational, and individual psychological factors on police use of discretion, officers in two metropolitan departments in the Midwest were asked how they would respond to a number of unique but highly structured cases: a domestic disturbance, juvenile intoxication, or a traffic case involving alcohol. Each officer was asked to indicate his/her response under a variety of circumstances. For each respondent, four measures were calculated: (1) the relative weight of each of seven situational cues in defining the officer's judgment policy; (2) the consistency coefficient, reflecting the extent to which the officer consistently applies his/her judgment policy; (3) the configurality index, reflecting the number of configural components in the officer's judgment policy; and (4) the multiplicity index for each officer, reflecting the number of cues the officer incorporates in his/her judgment policy. Twenty-nine officers in one department and 24 in the other participated in the study. The officers' tendency to use a small number of situational cues that were personally gratifying casts doubt in the effectiveness of discretion as a tool for improving law enforcement. This was particularly true of juvenile encounters, where youth were categorized almost exclusively by the deference shown to the officer. The most relevant source of variation in officers' use of discretion was the organization, as the organization was a factor in increasing the complexity of an officer's judgment policy without sacrificing consistency. This suggests that the nature of police education and training impacts on how police discretion is used. Tabular data and 14 footnotes are provided.