Introduction
The process of making a decision is a complex system of interrelated aspects that are influenced by a variety of conditions and might lead to numerous outcomes. This phenomenon applies to many spheres of human life and determines the success or failure of people’s activities. Decision-making as a choice of an appropriate belief and corresponding actions is an essential element in the criminal justice system.
Carrying out their daily responsibilities, the prosecutor decides to prosecute or plea bargain, the judge makes a choice if it is necessary to release a defendant pretrial or to sentence to prison, and the police make a decision whether to stop, search, use force, or arrest a suspect. Since the positions within the criminal justice system are of great influence and are powerful enough to apply the law and lead to severe consequences, the professionals provided with such responsibilities are encouraged to act according to the law and adhere to the applicable code.
It is claimed that the police have a high level of accountability for their actions because they are involved in the initial process of justice administration where their decision to arrest or not to arrest a suspect might lead to the involvement of other subjects of the system. However, despite well-defined educational and assisting programs, which help a police officer to apply knowledge to practice, the interactions with the public are highly contradictory and complex, and cannot be planned thoroughly. Therefore, there exist a series of social, psychological, and other types of factors that might crucially impact the ultimate decision.
Although this issue has gained a lot of scholarly attention throughout recent decades, it is relevant to examine and analyze what determinants influence police decision-making and how their choice of a course of actions affects the whole police system. In this paper, the general aspects of the police’s decision making will be presented with the following discussion of the possible factors impacting the decision to stop, search, use force, or arrest a suspect, including suspect characteristics and behavior, police officer’s characteristics and behavior, neighborhood-based influences, and organizational characteristics. The analysis of the decision-making process will be provided on the basis of the information retrieved from scholarly and official sources dated not older than five years.
General Aspects of Police Decision Making
As a phenomenon, decision-making is a complex system of intertwined cognitive processes, in a result of which a specific action is chosen. Due to such difficulty, the process of making a decision should be regarded with all earnest with special attention made to its elements. Often, the context of a situation, the personalities of those involved in it, there, cultural, educational, and psychological characteristics are essential and might lead to different outcomes. According to Roycroft (2019), the evolution of human cognitive abilities has brought people a so-called “system of one thinking,” which allows for instant decision making on the level of intuition (p. 2). Such an ability usually refers to everyday life decisions, the outcomes of which are very familiar for the actors.
However, there are situations, when intuitive decision-making could be inapplicable due to the severity of the consequences an error might bring. Therefore, in such cases, one should apply “system two” decision making, which is regarded as a “deliberate and thoughtful” reasoning with respect to the possible outcomes (Roycroft, 2019, p. 2). Since the work of the police implicates social responsibilities for other people’s lives, their decisions have to be made primarily within the framework of rational thinking.
The police service includes numerous everyday interactions with the public. Since safety and order are the primary objectives of their work, the police engage in dangerous communication situations with suspects, during which their actions are impacted by the pressure to prioritize the safety of the public, as well as their own. When working in “ambiguous, time-pressured, and consequential situations,” the police are exposed to severe threats, where the officers might compromise the rules to ensure the most relevant outcomes (Trenholm, 2018, p. i). That is why, not only the context, in which the process of making a decision is made but also the personal beliefs of a police representative play a significant role in reasoning and arriving at a conclusion concerning a specific choice of actions.
Although police officers are obliged to act according to the law and the rules of professional behavior, they still have much freedom in their performance. Indeed, the authority of the police “is original, not delegated, and is exercised at their own discretion by virtue of their office” (Roycroft, 2019, p. 3). Thus, when an officer makes a choice whether to stop, search, use force, or arrests a suspect, he or she is driven not only by the criminal law, but also by a series of subordinate factors, which include suspect characteristics and behavior, police officer’s characteristics and behavior, influences of a community, and organizations characteristics. All these factors will be reviewed and analyzed in detail in the following sections of the paper.
Influential Factors
For police officers to perform in accordance with their responsibilities at their appointed positions, they operate informational tools which allow them to detect an unlawful behavior or a situation with possible danger for the public. In highly intensive circumstances, quick and thought-through actions are required in order to minimize the threats of injuries, unrest, or death of the citizens (Hine, Porter, Westera, Alpert, & Allen, 2018).
However, a qualified officer incorporates a variety of influential factors which lead to the ultimate decision. According to Trenholm (2018), the decision-making techniques observed in more than one hundred police officers showed that the respondents took into account their firsthand experience about a similar situation, the body language of a suspect, and information for the public in addition to legal procedure preservation and police records before taking action. Therefore, the information concerning a suspect, an officer, a neighborhood, and an organizational structure of a police department impact decision making.
Suspect Characteristics and Behavior
The most critical determinants of the police’s decision to stop or arrest a suspect are his or her behavior and personal characteristics. Indeed, the suspect’s demeanor plays an essential role in triggering a response from a criminal justice official. The signs of engagement in unlawful activities that might lead to a threat to public safety are the primary causes of the police’s initiative to act. According to Siegel and Worrall (2016), if a suspected offender is irritable, acts suspiciously, “talks back, or otherwise challenges the officer’s authority, formal action is more likely to be taken” (p. 255). Usually, arrest decisions are made on the basis of a suspect’s disrespectful attitude towards a police representative (Brandl, 2017).
Moreover, if an offender physically opposes the actions of the police, the force is encouraged to be applied in return to eliminate any threats to safety. All in all, the character of an offender’s resistance determines the ways in which an officer performs his or her duty. If the resistance is manifested in a verbal form, the police’s reaction is also verbal, and if a suspect uses physical power to confront the authority, the response is also physical (Siegel & Worrall, 2016). However, the style of behavior is not always the only determinant when a criminal justice official chooses a way of acting. Belonging to a particular population group characterized by a specific ethnicity or race, as well as age, socio-economic status, and gender is also crucial in this respect.
The majority of the studies researching the issue of suspect characteristics influencing police decision-making show that race or ethnicity is crucial for the American police to stop, use force, or arrest a person. Several research studies’ results have demonstrated that African American and Hispanic males are more likely to be arrested and used power against than white individuals (Brandl, 2017; Carbado, 2017; Milner, George, & Allison, 2016; Morrow, White, & Fradella, 2017).
Ideally, race does not have to be regarded as a factor for the police or any other criminal justice official to arrest or apply any law enforcement procedure. However, in recent decades, the Fourth Amendment that guarantees the protection of all citizens from illegal search or seizure has been interpreted to “legalize racial profiling” (Carbado, 2017, p. 129). Consequentially, many programs are initiated to enforce stopping and searching of ethnic minorities since they present a high level of threat to the safety of the citizens (Morrow et al., 2017).
The ethnicity determinant emerged as a significant influencer on police behavior due to the crime statistics about particular population groups. Crime rates are disproportionately distributed among different ethnicities, where black and Hispanic minorities account for a significant number of severe crimes (Siegel & Worrall, 2016). Therefore, the belonging to African American or Hispanic ethnicity group is often a reason for an officer to stop or search a suspect.
Many cases investigated by researchers studying the decision-making of the police found that tall men of Hispanic or African American origin are primary suspects in threatening situations and are more likely to be arrested (Milner et al., 2016). However, such a prejudiced attitude toward race as a whole exaggerates racial disparities in society and imposes severe cultural, political, and social outcomes.
In addition, age and gender are taken into account when determining whether a suspect needs to be stopped, searched, or arrested. Indeed, research proves that younger individuals are more likely to be arrested than older ones (Siegel & Worrall, 2016). Supposedly, the delinquency in teenagers’ and young adults’ behavior provokes more acute attention of the authorities toward this population group. The gender of a suspect also seems to be one of the factors determining the arrest rates. It was found that women are less prone to being arrested than men (Siegel & Worrall, 2016). In general, the scope of determinants impacting police officers’ decision-making is based on the research, prior firsthand or secondhand experience, as well as the personal beliefs of an individual in service.
Police Officer’s Characteristics and Behavior
As for the characteristics of an officer, there is a range of issues that might predetermine a professional’s attitude to work and his or her responsibility in carrying out duties. Evidently, such factors as a police officer’s education, gender, race, self-esteem, stress-coping abilities, and cultural background all impact the framework of actions he or she might choose. While education and experience seem obvious determinants of the quality of work, gender is also claimed to be influential.
Indeed, according to Siegel and Worrall (2016), “female officers are less likely to use force than male officers,” which is why they tend to be more successful in de-escalating conflicts and avoiding violence in their work (p. 255). Race and ethnicity are also influential in respect of a police officer’s characteristics. Research demonstrates that white officers are more likely to arrest African-American individuals in the United States (Brandl, 2017).
Psychological issues and behavioral patterns are identified as great contributors to the decision-making process. Since the police always work under great stress, their ability to withstand the psychological pressure predetermines their actions. Being exposed to highly stressful circumstances, a person is prone to make errors and fail to reach the goals of the service (Brandl, 2017). Psychological and physiological factors are essential because “maladaptive stress responses during a critical incident put the officer and members of the public at risk of injury or death” (Andersen & Gustafsberg, 2016). Thus, the ability to apply stress-coping mechanisms in a dangerous situation determines the process of making decisions to use force or arrest a suspect.
An officer is expected to have a set of skills necessary for his or her quality service and effective decision-making. All of them are aimed at prioritizing discretionary decision making, which is a very subjective notion and might be perceived by different people in a different manner (Siegel & Worrall, 2016).
Among the most important skills, there are communication skills, which include an ability of a person to conduct efficient information exchange using the techniques of de-escalating, active listening, verbal codes, use of verbal commands, carrying out interviews, and negotiations (Trenholm, 2018). Physical skills are essential because the ability to withstand physical resistance is key to a successful problem resolution. In addition, the abilities to use decision tools, information, dispatching, and the techniques of behavioral understanding contribute to the success of an officer’s work.
Any error or imperfection in the usage of the abovementioned skills might impact an officer’s decision to act in a particular situation. Moreover, in most cases, the police do not have enough time to collect and analyze information and ultimately use it to apply a certain technique or skill. The majority of decisions have to be made immediately, as, for example, a speeding car has to be stopped, or an armed offender needs to be isolated (Brandl, 2017). As a consequence, many decisions are poor and lead to adverse and sometimes even fatal outcomes, which are perceived by the public as misconduct.
Neighborhood-Based Influences
The trend in the police’s bad decision-making due to the lack of time provoked the emergence of a so-called Ferguson effect. It is a claim that the police try to avoid law enforcement in order to decrease the level of dangerous outcomes, which has resulted in an increase in crime rates (Wolfe & Nix, 2016). This phenomenon is related to an incident when “a Ferguson police officer shot and killed eighteen-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed African American man” (Gillham & Marx, 2018). It led to a series of riots and social movements that underlined the importance of controlling the police’s use of violence against citizens. The cautious attitude toward the police in specific communities diminishes the objectivity of officers’ decision-making.
Similarly, the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of a particular neighborhood determine the steps in the process of decision-making and the ultimate actions of a police officer. For example, the street code culture that is prevalent in the neighborhoods where ethnic minorities reside is the focus of the police’s attention; the residents of such communities are more likely to be arrested or convicted (Mears, Stewart, Warren, & Simons, 2017). Indeed, some areas are of more concern for the criminal justice authorities, while others are treated differently. Research shows that an officer is more likely to use force, arrest, or stop a suspect in areas characterized as low-income (Brandl, 2017).
Similarly, the presence of baggers in unfortunate neighborhoods might be ignored by a policeman but could be acutely addressed in a higher-income district. Therefore, the socio-economic context and location play a meaningful role in the decision-making of the police.
Organizational Characteristics
Evidently, the rules, to which the police adhere, determine the very essence of their decision-making and might be regarded as one of the primary factors. The culture and policies developed in an organization, funding, staffing, and promotion opportunities might be either positive or negative contributors to action choice. The official measures aimed at controlling police performance require absolute adherence to them.
For example, an instruction to use body-worn cameras by police officers has shown a decrease in the use of force while in service (Ariel et al., 2016). According to Nowacki (2015), such determinants as department size and administrative policy might be a cause for bureaucracy, which might serve as a motivation for some people. For example, individuals who are willing to be promoted to a higher position tend to conduct more arrests (Siegel & Worrall, 2016). Thus, the official rules within a police department regulate the patterns of officers’ behavior.
Moreover, organizational culture, as a non-official code of conduct, is intertwined with the personal characteristics of the police crew members and severely shapes decision-making. As a “network of shared norms, values, attitudes, and expectations,” organizational culture imposes interpersonal relations, in which some individuals are treated differently (Brandl, 2017, p. 177). Commitment and peer support might encourage one to preserve more discretion or act more decisively in the same situation. Such moral triggers and the rules of behavior inside a department only contribute to the scope of multifaceted factors influencing police decision-making.
Conclusion
To sum up, the work of the police is highly stressful and dangerous; it embraces interactions with suspects, searches, arrests, and the use of force. All these actions are a result of a complex decision-making process conditioned by a variety of factors.
Behavioral and personal characteristics of both a suspect and an officer, the socio-economic and cultural background of a neighborhood, and the policies and culture of an organization impact the patterns of a criminal justice official’s actions. Since the police work under constant pressure and stressful circumstance, the determinants have to be analyzed instantly to act on the spot, which might lead to misconduct and errors. However, the research in the field of the factors influencing the decision-making process contributes to the understanding of the cognitive mechanisms and allows for the improvement of the police’s work.
References
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