Brian Renauer

Victim or Offender? Heterogeneity Among Women Arrested for Intimate Partner Violence

Mandatory arrest laws for intimate partner violence (IPV) have increased both the number and proportion of arrests that involve female defendants. Whether these numbers should be as high as they are remains a source of controversy. Most practitioners argue that women are usually arrested for defensive actions used in the face of assaults perpetrated by their spouse/partner. Others believe that these higher arrest rates more accurately reflect the true prevalence of physical aggression perpetrated by women. One way to help clarify this debate is to take a closer look at the women charged with IPV. The present study used self-reported information and criminal justice records on prior aggression to classify 485 women convicted of IPV into four distinct subtypes (i.e., no prior violence, primary victim, primary aggressor, and primary aggressor not identified). Despite the fact that all of these women were arrested for and convicted of IPV, analyses consistently found that few of the women could be considered as the primary aggressor in their relationship. Nor, however, were all of the women classified as primary victims. Methodological issues are discussed as well as the policy, practice, and research implications of this study.

Is neighborhood policing related to informal social control

Purpose – The present study aims to examine the relationship between public and informal social control by investigating whether perceptions of neighborhood policing exhibit a positive or negative relationship to informal control. The influence of police‐resident coproduction (police attendance at community meetings, police accessibility, police‐resident problem solving) on informal control is contrasted with general perceptions of police effectiveness and legitimacy.Design/methodology/approach – Survey data from 81 neighborhood leaders representing 81 Portland, OR neighborhoods (i.e. unit of analysis), along with crime and census data is used. Analysis involves multivariate OLS regression and correlations.Findings – A frequency of police attendance at community meetings was negatively related to informal social control, controlling for neighborhood demographics, crime, and social cohesion. Results indicate a community style of policing may not be enough to overcome deeply entrenched attitudes toward the ...

Investigating Intersections Between Gender and Intimate Partner Violence Recidivism

Abstract Mandatory and preferred arrest policies for domestic violence (DV) have led to an increase in DV arrests and prosecutions of male and female suspects. The strain of this increase on criminal justice resources suggests a need for prioritizing DV cases and determining suspects most at risk for recidivism and victimization. The present study sought to address a largely ignored question in the field of DV: who is more likely to recidivate, male or female DV offenders involved with the criminal justice system? Two forms of recidivism were coded using subsequent police reports for DV: recidivism as a suspect and recidivism as a victim. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the ways in which male and female DV offenders recidivate. Males were more likely to recidivate as a suspect and females were more likely to be listed as a future DV victim in police reports. Male and female offenders also significantly differed in the frequency of their recidivism. Gender, independent of other factors, was reliably associated with both forms of recidivism and a similar pattern of recidivism was found in two different cities. There was, however, a small group of female offenders in both cities who appear to be primary aggressors. Another grouping of female offenders appears to be involved in relationships characterized by mutual aggression and bi-directional violence. Together these two groups account for roughly a quarter of the women in our sample. The implications of the findings for arrest practices, treatment and interventions, and using gender as a risk factor are discussed. Validity and reliability problems with using police reports as a measure of DV recidivism are also reviewed.

Tipping the Scales of Justice The Effect of Overincarceration on Neighborhood Violence

Rose and Clear propose that neighborhood incarceration, after a tipping-point threshold, can disrupt informal social-control mechanisms in neighborhoods producing more crime and violence. They hypothesize that the incarceration-crime relationship at a neighborhood level is curvilinear. Using suggestions from Hannon and Knapp, the authors assess curvilinearity in the incarceration-crime relationship by comparing results across three different estimation techniques (ordinary least squares, heteroscedasticity consistent covariance matrix [HCCM] for small samples, called HC3, negative binomial). Data from 95 Portland, Oregon, neighborhoods are used for the study. The results are generally consistent and supportive of Rose and Clear’s curvilinearity hypothesis of neighborhood incarceration but only for explanations of violent crime, not property crime. Moderate levels of neighborhood incarceration are related to significant violent crime rate decreases, and high levels of neighborhood incarceration are significantly related to violent crime rate increases. However, models were sensitive to estimation technique and outlying observations. Policy considerations related to concentrated neighborhood incarceration are discussed.

Measuring police‐community co‐production

A popular practice of community‐policing is police attendance at community meetings. Given the prevalence of this co‐productive activity, research needs to understand the potential variation in police‐community interactions occurring in or reported in community meetings. Developing reliable and valid measurement techniques to characterize interactions occurring at police‐community meetings has strategic planning value for police and community practitioners and scholarly theoretical value. Two observational coding (issue‐specific and global) and sampling (continuous and periodic) strategies are contrasted. Methodological trade‐offs regarding validity, utility, strategic planning value, and theory‐testing value of the different methods are detailed. It is concluded that global measures of police‐community interactions and periodic observations of police‐community meetings can help with understanding variation in police‐community meetings and implementation effectiveness of co‐productive strategies. Yet, to validly understand the cause and effects of police‐community co‐production on building community and public safety, issue‐specific coding strategies and continuous observations of community meetings are necessary.

Community Variables in Community Policing

Current thinking on community policing suffers from not specifying a plausible connection between policing structures and priorities and sustained neighborhood improvement. Presently, we have no way of knowing whether community policing helps or harms neighborhood civic efficacy, neighborhood participation, and other related processes that sustain neighborhoods. This article identifies seven dimensions that are commonly identified with strong neighborhoods in the urban political sociology, community organiza tion, and neighborhood social movement literatures. It examines the relevance of community policing to those neighborhood strengthening processes and explores the difficulties in developing appropriate indicators of policing influence on neighborhood development.

Neighborhood Variation in Police Stops and Searches: A Test of Consensus and Conflict Perspectives

This study examines consensus and conflict approaches to explaining police stop and search rates in 94 neighborhoods. Police deployment, racial threat, race-out-of-place, and social conditioning perspectives were analyzed. Models were based on 206,083 stops and 38,493 searches controlling for racial/ethnic makeup, citizen calls for service, disadvantage, prior violent crime suspect rates, time of day, and spatial autocorrelation. The results supported both police deployment and race out of place arguments. Policy implications focus on the need for police and community to fully understand and mutually agree on the relevance of both consensus and conflict perspectives.

Examining the relationship between police experiences and perceptions of police bias

Purpose – This paper aims to use three theoretical perspectives to understand variation in public opinion regarding the frequency with which police use race/ethnicity unfairly in making stops: procedural and instrumental justice, local government responsiveness, and intra‐racial differences.Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks at data from a telephone survey of 1,431 Oregon residents: 741 from a stratified state‐wide random sample by county; 164 African‐Americans and 161 Hispanics over samples.Findings – Perceived negative treatment during recent involuntary police contacts is related to a perception that police are more biased. Instrumental judgments regarding local government responsiveness to constituent needs and personal safety showed a negative relationship to perceptions of police bias. African‐American respondents exhibited the strongest police bias opinions; however, intra‐racial analyses showed that perceptions of government responsiveness weaken bias perceptions across race/ethnicity.R...

Measuring Police-Community Coproduction: The Utility of Community Policing Case Studies

Case studies may represent a valuable source of data for testing the theoretical propositions related to community policing. The utility of this approach depends on the extent to which case studies assess coproduction interactions between police and residents. This study utilizes a measurement protocol to systematically extract these interactions from case studies. After assessing the reliability and the validity of these measures, the authors conclude that there is some utility in using case studies for this purpose. Case studies are a better source of information about the presence or absence of certain coproduction interactions and about the dispersion of these interactions over people, places, and organizations. Case studies are a weaker source of information about the temporal fluctuations in coproduction. The strengths and limitations of this approach are discussed.

The effects of perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality and social identity threat on racial minorities’ attitudes about police

ABSTRACT This study examines the role of perceived phenotypic racial stereotypicality and race-based social identity threat on racial minorities’ trust and cooperation with police. We hypothesize that in police interactions, racial minorities’ phenotypic racial stereotypicality may increase race-based social identity threat, which will lead to distrust and decreased participation with police. Racial minorities (Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and multi-racials) and Whites from a representative random sample of city residents were surveyed about policing attitudes. A serial multiple mediation model confirmed that racial minorities’ self-rated phenotypic racial stereotypicality indirectly affected future cooperation through social identity threat and trust. Due to the lack of negative group stereotypes in policing, the model did not hold for Whites. This study provides evidence that phenotypic stereotypicality influences racial minorities’ psychological experiences interacting with police.