Mark Alden Morgan

Suspicion formation among police officers: an international literature review

Recent research on racial profiling has renewed attention on how police officers develop suspicions about citizens, and how these suspicions influence the official behavior of police. In order to guide the current research, a review of the wealth of existing qualitative and quantitative research on this topic is necessary. This literature review examines the existing international research in psychology, sociology, and criminology on police officer development of suspicion. It also lays out a framework for organizing the findings with four broad methods of suspicion development: stereotypical perceptions about typical criminal offenders, prior knowledge about specific citizens; incongruent circumstances, and suspicious nonverbal cues. It concludes with the few studies linking officer suspicions to official police behavior.

Malevolent Forces Self-Control, the Dark Triad, and Crime

The Dark Triad is represented by three interrelated personality characteristics thought to share a “dark core”—that is, to be associated with a range of negative outcomes. We investigate this link alongside another potent predictor of crime, low self-control. Our analyses found the Dark Triad was strongly predictive of delinquency, especially violent delinquency, where it accounted for the effects of self-control. Yet it exerted no significant effect on drug-based delinquency. However, an interaction between the Dark Triad and low self-control remained substantive and predictive across all models, where low self-control amplified the effects of the Dark Triad on delinquency.

Crime in the Kingdom The Effects of Low Self-Control in a Saudi Arabian Sample of Youth

Low self-control has emerged as a ubiquitous predictor of a range of behaviors and life outcomes, including criminal and analogous behaviors. Evidence linking self-control to criminal conduct, moreover, has also emerged from several cross-cultural studies. While important, cross-cultural studies remain limited in number and in scope. Extending empirical investigations into the effects of self-control cross-culturally, we present findings from data collected from Saudi Arabian high school youth. Low self-control was a substantive predictor of self-reported delinquency, violent behavior (VB), victimization, and delinquent peer associations for males and females. The effects of low self-control were found to be substantive, general, and invariant across sex within a culture that practices sex segregation and one that embraces harsh punishments for violent conduct.

Analyzing seat belt usage from accident data: an evaluation of Click It or Ticket enforcement campaigns in Ohio

Intensive traffic enforcement has been shown to promote the compliance of roadway motorists and reduce traffic violations. However, prior research on seat belt enforcement has generally neglected the analysis of belt usage in non-fatal accidents, usage by backseat passengers, and usage during nighttime hours. In addition, few studies have examined the effectiveness of blitz campaigns and, to date, none has included usage statistics involving accident victims—individuals at an increased risk of belt non-use. This study sought to include these factors in evaluating whether Ohio’s annual Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign positively impacted belt use in a 60 day, pretest/post-test experiment over five separate years: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Data were collected from all 88 Ohio counties based upon official police reports of seat belt usage by occupants in motor vehicle accidents regardless of crash severity, occupant seating, or time of day. The results indicate that belt usage increased significantly after the 2005 and 2008 campaigns, but no impact was found among the remaining years. In addition, the data suggest that belt usage may have been maintained at optimal levels according to previous research. These findings are discussed along with the possible policy implications of transitioning Ohio to a primary seat belt law State to increase compliance.

Beyond Black and White: Suspension Disparities for Hispanic, Asian, and White Youth

Studies have consistently found a significant gap between Black and White students in various forms of school discipline. Few studies, however, have examined disciplinary differences between other racial and ethnic groups. Focusing on out-of-school suspensions, a punishment closely linked to the “school-to-prison pipeline,” we investigate the disparities between Hispanic, Asian, and White youth. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class are used to control for contemporary socioeconomic variables, the context of the school environment, and the parent-reported behavior of the student. Through a series of logistic regression models, we found that White students were significantly more likely to be suspended than were Hispanics or Asians. However, while the disparity between Hispanics and Whites was eliminated after controlling for student misbehavior, the gap persisted between Asians and Whites. These results question the contention that systemic racial discrimination is a leading contributor to group differences in school discipline. Moreover, we add to a limited but growing literature showing Asian students are significantly less likely to experience school punishments including suspension.