RT Article
T1 Understanding public preferences for policing homeless individuals in the United States: results from a national survey
JF Deviant behavior
VO 44
IS 10
SP 1462
OP 1479
A1 Burkhardt, Brett C.
A2 Edwards, Mark Evan
A2 Akins, Scott
A2 Stout, Christopher T. 1982-
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/187004911X
AB The United States has a large and growing homeless population. In the name of public order, municipalities across the country have criminalized behaviors associated with homeless people in public spaces (e.g. panhandling) and tasked police with responding to violations. What should police do in these encounters? This study reports on a nationwide survey experiment that asked US residents whether police should arrest, help, or ignore a homeless individual in several hypothetical scenarios. We estimate (1) aggregate preferences for police response, (2) the association between respondent demographics and individual preferences, and (3) the effect of experimentally manipulated identity - gender and background - of a homeless person on preferences. Results reveal that a helping response from police is generally preferred to arresting or ignoring. An arrest response received greater support from people who perceived homelessness to be a problem locally, as well as men and Republicans. The identity of the homeless individual had little effect on preferred police responses. With respect to public and policy debates about homelessness, these results suggest that there is relatively little public appetite for a heavy-handed police response, though this may not hold in areas where many people perceive homelessness to be a source of problems.
NO Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 1475-1478
K1 Obdachlosigkeit
K1 Umgang
K1 Gesellschaft
K1 Kriminalisierung
K1 Polizeiarbeit
DO 10.1080/01639625.2023.2209692