Title

Nonarrest Decision Making In Police-Citizen Encounters

Keywords

Arrest; Discretion; Nonarrest; Police; Police-citizen encounters

Abstract

While early arrest studies tended to be more qualitative in nature and focus on the nonarrest process, more recent quantitative research has centered on the factors most likely to predict arrest. Using observational data, the current study draws on both lines of inquiry by examining incidents of nonarrest where there was a threshold of evidence that would support an arrest. A multivariate model of nonarrest decision making is presented, and qualitative narratives are analyzed to disentangle actions that police took in lieu of arrest, as well as reasons for alternate actions. The findings indicate that nonarrest behavior is much more prevalent than arrest, irrespective of evidence strength, and that several situational factors are statistically related to nonarrest decisions. The findings also show that alternative arrest actions are not demonstrably different than those noted by descriptive studies some 40 years ago, although the reasons for nonarrest behavior are substantially more varied. © 2007 Sage Publications.

Publication Date

9-1-2007

Publication Title

Police Quarterly

Volume

10

Issue

3

Number of Pages

308-331

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611107299998

Socpus ID

46349088179 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/46349088179

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