Deck 6: Police Discretion and Behavior

Question 1

That police discretion is not as simple in practice as Kelling's two-part definition is underscored by

A)The identification of 770 possible action combinations in response to a traffic stop
B)Communities each having their own set of problems and priorities
C)The wide variance in how serious different crimes are
D)All of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which values do you think are held in common by many Americans and the police subculture?

Answer 2

Answers will vary.Students may suggest that common sense,bravery,justice,patriotism,and dedication to creating a better society are shared values.

Question 3

Identify the characteristics of another subculture that you know well,and compare and contrast these characteristics with the characteristics of police subculture.

Answer 3

Answers will vary depending on the subculture that the student chooses to compare with police subculture.

Question 4

What is the relationship between force and coercion?

Question 5

Instances of police discretion usually come to the public's attention when

A)A large amount of money is saved
B)A potentially deadly situation is well handled
C)Something goes wrong,e.g.,abuse or corruption
D)There aren't many convictions

Question 6

What is another metaphor related to police work,and how might it influence the police subculture?

Question 7

Police officers are considered policy makers because

A)The sum of their discretionary decisions adds up to policy
B)Police administrators are often elected to state legislatures
C)Legislators note citation records in revising criminal statues
D)Police are among the biggest lobbying groups in the United States

Question 8

What other factors besides the five mentioned in the chapter might be sources of police subculture?

Question 9

Analyze how working undercover would affect an officer in terms of various components of police subculture.

Question 10

Which of these would someone with a particularistic perspective believe?

A)Assignment of officers should be based on their personality traits
B)The differences among police officer exist but should be downplayed
C)These is no one personality or set of traits that all police officer share
D)The rules controlling police work limit officer's expression of personality

Question 11

It is likely that the universalistic perspective is tied to

A)The traditional,organizational factors that have pervaded most police agencies.
B)The fact that most police officers have been white males
C)The initial rise of law enforcement in the United States in the "Wild West"
D)The influence of political factors on law enforcement agencies

Question 12

If research demonstrated that policing draws a particular personality type,it would provide evidence of the power of

A)Socialization
B)Predisposition
C)Collaboration
D)Sensitivity

Question 13

All of these are attitudinal dimensions identified by Robert Worden as explain differences among individual police officers EXCEPT which one?

A)Views on selective enforcement
B)Role orientation
C)Perceptions of legal restrictions
D)Perceptions of authority

Question 14

The particularistic perspective focuses on all of the following EXCEPT which one?

A)An officer's values
B)An officer's training
C)An officer's role orientation
D)An officer's preferred style(s)of policing

Question 15

Interactions between new hires and both their colleagues and seasoned officers is responsible for

A)Formal socialization
B)Informal socialization
C)Development of predisposition
D)Entrenching particularistic traits

Question 16

What is the first part of police discretion used in decision-making,according to George Kelling?

A)How to intervene
B)Whether to intervene
C)Reviewing community priorities
D)Ascertaining problem context

Question 17

All of these may influence a police officer not to arrest someone EXCEPT which one?

A)Thinking that the prosecutor will reject the case
B)Believing that a judge would hand down a lenient sentence
C)Respecting the contributions of courts,judges,and prosecutors
D)Assuming that there might not be enough room in the local jail

Question 18

Seniority within law enforcement agencies limits discretionary decisions for all of these reasons EXCEPT which one?

A)High level administrators spend little time on the street
B)Administrator's financial decisions are limited by budget constraints
C)Hiring decisions are limited by rules,union pressures,and influential politicians
D)Older officers as a group are less apt to rely on discretion

Question 19

Police officer's attitudes toward the courts

A)Are almost entirely favorable
B)Are almost entirely unfavorable
C)Run from very favorable to very unfavorable
D)Can almost all be characterized as apathetic

Question 20

The universalistic perspective focuses on

A)An officer's innate skills
B)An officer's family life
C)The influence of peers and coworkers
D)An officer's character

Question 21

The U.S.Supreme Court rules that it is unconstitutional for a police officers to arrest someone for a traffic violation.

Question 22

Heterogeneous neighborhoods are those with

A)A range of socioeconomic statuses
B)A widely varying crime rate
C)Ethnic or racial diversity
D)A high rate of resident turnover

Question 23

Researchers have not determined the influence of an officer's education on his or her decision making.

Question 24

Officers who patrol smaller areas,especially in small towns,tend to

A)Adopt more of a service orientation
B)Be less adept at handling a range of situations
C)Be slow to develop "people skills"
D)Be less prone to make arrests for drunk driving

Question 25

In general,young people tend to be treated more informally by police,probably because of their youth.

Question 26

Women are less likely to be arrested than men are.

Question 27

Police officers who believe in selective enforcement of the law are more likely to use informal methods to deal with disputes.

Question 28

Some police officers see due process provisions as interfering with their mission.

Question 29

In minority-dominated neighborhoods,residents are more likely to find it appropriate to call the police.

Question 30

Selling advertising space on police cruisers is an example of a chief's exercise of discretion.

Question 31

Under what conditions would it be useful for an officer to apply the broken windows theory in decision making?

A)In any neighborhood in which shoplifting is a major problem
B)In any neighborhood with a majority of low socioeconomic status residents
C)In any neighborhood with a high crime rate
D)In any neighborhood with signs of physical and social disorder

Question 32

Police are required to prevent all crimes.

Question 33

A set of facts and circumstances that would induce a reasonably intelligent and prudent person to believe that another person has committee a specific crime is

A)Known as probable cause
B)Proper legal justification for making an arrest
C)Often easier to find for a serious offense
D)All of the above

Question 34

Predictable beats and schedules can get boring.Research has found that rotating officers into different beats,units,or shifts results in

A)Decreased boredom and more engagement
B)Increased distance between officers and the community
C)Heightened interest among citizens in the police presence
D)Better development of the sixth sense

Question 35

Almost all police officers have total respect for the law,department policy,and court ruling that limit their behavior.

Question 36

Socialization of police officers is both formal and informal.

Question 37

Arrests are more likely as the relationship between the victim and the offenders becomes more distant.

Question 38

What is the name of the sense of obligation and protectiveness that officers who routinely patrol the same area feel for it?

A)Community justice
B)Gratuity
C)Participatory management
D)The territorial imperative

Question 39

Traditional police training has encouraged female recruits to maintain a feminine stance.

Question 40

Officers who see crime control as their primary role are more likely to end a dispute with force or an arrest than with an attempt to settle it verbally with mediation.

Question 41

Publicizing incidents of police abuse and corruption lead people to call for ________.

Question 42

The presence or absence of peers has no effect on police decision making.

Question 43

The hierarchical,quasi-military structure of most police departments requires a certain pattern of behavior from employees,most notably following the chain of ________.

Question 44

A police officer who issues a citation for every infraction,no matter how minor,is following the ________ of the law.

Question 45

Officers discretion in situations such as pursuit riving is limited for the purpose of preserving public safety and minimizing injuries to ________ third parties.

Question 46

An officer's individual conception of what constitutes proper and good police work is known as role ________.

Question 47

Officers who make more arrests to secure a promotion or in order to gain more income from the overtime that will come from the paperwork are driven by ________.

Question 48

An officer's beat is an example of an ________ factor that predicts police decision making.

Question 49

The academy and field training periods are when new police officers receive ________ socialization.

Question 50

Targeting low-level offenses and quality-of-life problems to try to prevent more serious crimes from occurring later is known as ________ window policing.