Causes of Police Behavior: the Current State of Quantitative Research
Abstract
This paper is a first attempt to organize and codify the findings of quantitative research on four aspects of police behavior: detection, arrest, service, and violence. A framework of five explanatory approaches is used to organize the findings: individual characteristics of police officers; situational, organizational, and community characteristics; and legal variables. The findings generally show weak relationships between a wide range of the hypothesized causes and police behavior, the implica tions of which for building a substantive theory of policing are briefly considered.
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Officers tend to react similarly to given situations because of organizational operating procedures, incentives, and top-down managerial and bottom-up behavioral models.
“This means that officers tend to react similarly to given situations because of organizational operating procedures, incentives, and top-down managerial and bottom-up behavioral models (Sherman 1980; Wilson 1968, Tankebe 2016).”
From Paradoxical effects of self-awareness of being observed: testing the effect of police body-worn cameras on assaults and aggression against officers (2018) · cites this paper as Sherman 1980
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References 53 · Cited by 333
- Authors
- Sherman, L. W.
- Corresponding author
- Sherman, Lawrence W.
- ORCID
- Sherman, Lawrence W.
- Venue
- Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1980-01
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 69-100
- ISSN
- 0022-4278 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-731X
- OpenAlex
- W2162851306
- Cited by
- 333
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 35.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- police behavior, police arrest, police services, police brutality, situational factors, organizational factors, community factors, explanatory frameworks
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