Open AccessThe Relationship Between Individual Police Officer Work Habits and the Stated Reasons Prosecutors Reject Their Domestic Violence Investigations
Author(s) -
Eric L. Nelson
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
sage open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.357
H-Index - 32
ISSN - 2158-2440
DOI - 10.1177/2158244013511826
Subject(s) - officer , conviction , psychology , domestic violence , criminology , police department , occupational safety and health , work (physics) , suicide prevention , medicine , poison control , social psychology , political science , medical emergency , law , engineering , mechanical engineering
In the United States, 70% of all non-arrest domestic violence (DV)police investigations are rejected by prosecutors. Using DV investigation data, theroutine work habits of two groups of police officers were compared across six measures.Cases submitted by routinely lower effort (RLE) officers are rejected 270% more often,sustaining an average of 4.00 criticisms each, compared to 2.21 for routinely greatereffort (RGE) officers. RLE officers submit ambiguous investigations (58% v. 0%), andcases with insufficient evidence (74% vs. 36%). The Proficiency Score (P Score)quantitative monitoring method is presented and validated. This method identifies RLEofficers, and also specific areas of deficient individual investigative practice in needof improvement. With improvement, rates of prosecution and conviction for DV crimeshould increase substantially
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