Arrest as displaced aggression
Applied to police officers, displaced aggression theory would suggest that an officer primed for a negative affect by a personal family conflict will be more likely to arrest, and less likely to show lenience toward, criminal suspects engaged in minor offenses. The present study primed a sample of p...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013
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| In: |
Criminal justice and behavior
Year: 2013, Volume: 40, Issue: 10, Pages: 1149-1162 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | Applied to police officers, displaced aggression theory would suggest that an officer primed for a negative affect by a personal family conflict will be more likely to arrest, and less likely to show lenience toward, criminal suspects engaged in minor offenses. The present study primed a sample of police officers for either positive or negative affects. The police officer participants were then presented with a vignette involving a drunken driver that contained details presenting only the minimum level of evidence to justify a legal arrest. The respondent officers primed for a negative affect were significantly more likely to indicate they would arrest the driver. This result held even after controlling for the officers? ascribed characteristics in a multivariate analysis. The results suggest that officers primed for a negative affect by personal circumstances are more likely to take out their frustration by exercising their discretion to arrest for a minor offense. |
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| ISSN: | 1552-3594 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/0093854813484132 |