Title

Who are the complaint-prone officers? The role of officers’ attributes, arrest activity, and assignment in differentiating between low- and high-rate officers

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2001

Source Publication

Journal of Criminal Justice

Abstract

This article identifies the characteristics of police officers (officers’ background attributes, arrest activity, and assignment) who most frequently receive complaints from citizens regarding the use of excessive force. The data for the study were obtained from a large mid-western municipal police department. The results show that arrest activity, officer age, and officer gender are most strongly related to the receipt of citizen’s complaints about excessive force and differentiate high-complaint officers from low-complaint officers. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Comments

Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 29, (2001), DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2352(01)00114-3.