Causal peer effects in police misconduct

Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct

This article examines perceptions of police misconduct in the United States and the factors that influence these perceptions. Using data from a large, nationally representative survey of whites, African Americans, and Hispanics, we examine how citizens’ views of four types of police misconduct—verbal abuse, excessive force, unwarranted stops, and corruption—are shaped by race and other factors,...

applying social learning theory to police misconduct

Although numerous studies have attempted to understand the causes of various forms of police misconduct, there is still no clear theoretical explanation of police misbehavior. Akers’ social learning theory posits that peer associations, attitudes, reinforcement, and modeling are predictors of delinquency and crime in general. With this article, we seek to determine if the theory can account for...

Bad Lady Cops : Explaining Sex Differences in Police Officer Misconduct

Estimation of Causal Peer Influence Effects

The broad adoption of social media has generated interest in leveraging peer influence for inducing desired user behavior. Quantifying the causal effect of peer influence presents technical challenges, however, including how to deal with social interference, complex response functions and network uncertainty. In this paper, we extend potential outcomes to allow for interference, we introduce we...

Police Misconduct as a Cause of Wrongful Convictions

This study gathers data from two mass exonerations resulting from major police scandals, one involving the Rampart division of the L.A.P.D., and the other occurring in Tulia, Texas. To date, these cases have received little systematic attention by wrongful convictions scholars. Study of these cases, however, reveals important differences among subgroups of wrongful convictions. Whereas eyewitne...