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Published on: May 3, 2016
The relationship between officer misconduct and convictionless arrests
Bocar A Ba1,2, Nayoung Rim3, Roman G Rivera2,4
1Department of Economics, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708.
Summary
Police officers with a history of misconduct make more arrests that don't lead to convictions, especially for minor crimes. Legal actors like prosecutors and judges may be mitigating these unwarranted arrests.
Area of Science:
- Criminology
- Law Enforcement Studies
- Public Policy
Background:
- Allegations of police misconduct raise concerns about accountability and fairness in the justice system.
- Understanding the behavior of officers with prior misconduct is crucial for police reform and public trust.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if police officers with a history of alleged misconduct are more prone to making convictionless arrests.
- To analyze the types of arrests and situations where high-misconduct officers differ from their peers.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Chicago Police Department's rotational duty calendar for exogenous variation in officer assignments.
- Compared arrest patterns of officers with high prior alleged misconduct versus those with no prior misconduct.
Main Results:
- Officers with high prior alleged misconduct statistically significantly increase arrests for nonindex crimes.
- These officers also show higher arrest rates in situations demanding greater officer discretion.
- Evidence suggests downstream legal actors partially correct these biased arrests.
Conclusions:
- Prior misconduct is linked to a higher likelihood of making arrests that do not result in convictions.
- Officer discretion appears to be a key factor in these biased arrest patterns.
- The legal system demonstrates some capacity to mitigate the impact of biased policing.
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