Police

Comparing 911 and emergency hotline calls for domestic violence in seven cities: What happened when people started staying home due to COVID-19?

We examine the effect of COVID-19 on domestic violence, as measured by daily calls to 911 and Victim Service Agencies’ emergency hotlines.

Police Support for/Opposition to Various Reforms

Earlier today I was reminded of some data I’m sitting on that my colleagues and I never published anywhere. This comes from a web-based survey of police officers at a large, southern agency that we administered in 2018. The response rate was 31%. So we asked officers to consider eight ideas that “have been proposed as ways to improve policing” and indicate the extent they supported or opposed each. We listed a hodgepodge of “reforms” including some that would (1) expand police authority, (2) restrict police authority, or (3) increase citizen oversight.

Elevated Police Turnover following the Summer of George Floyd Protests: A Synthetic Control Study

Police resignations - but not retirements or involuntary separations - spiked significantly in a large western department following the George Floyd protests.

Dismantling Racism, Sexism, and Inequities in Policing

A roundtable about disparities in policing and how to address them. With Sadaf Hashimi, Tracie Keesee, and Seth Stoughton (moderated by Walter Katz). Click on the Video button above to watch.

Understanding the Bounds of Legitimacy: Weber’s Facets of Legitimacy and the Police Empowerment Hypothesis

Despite considerable evidence that police legitimacy results in beneficial outcomes like compliance, cooperation, and empowerment, scholars have yet to agree on how to define and operationalize legitimacy. Drawing on Max Weber’s facets of legitimacy, …

Domestic Violence Help-Seeking During COVID-19

Summary Study after study has shown that help-seeking for domestic violence increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. My colleague, Tara Richards (Faculty Lead for SCCJ’s Victimology and Victim Studies Research Lab), was quick to observe that all of the research to date has relied on official data (e.g., calls for police service, reported crimes). Research has yet to consider whether victim service agency hotlines experienced an uptick in calls during COVID-19.

Understanding Denver’s devastating rise in violent crime in 2020

We argue that Denver’s 2020 crime spike was likely the result of a police legitimacy crisis.

The immediate and long-term effects of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders on domestic violence calls for service across six U.S. jurisdictions

In 5 of 6 jurisdictions, domestic violence calls for police service spiked during stay-at-home orders

Mandatory Sexual Assault Kit Testing Policies and Arrest Trends: A Natural Experiment

We evaluated the effect of a mandatory SAK testing policy on the monthly rape arrest rate in a western jurisdiction

Police Killings of Unarmed Black Americans: A Reassessment of Community Mental Health Spillover Effects

Correcting 91 misclassified incidents renders Bor et al.’s (2018) key finding non-significant.