Invisible Crime: Police Criminality and the Lack of Official Data Steven Hougland, Bainbridge State College Jennifer Allen, University of North Georgia

Crime committed by the police police misconduct and corruption literature is plentiful. few empirical studies that exist are limited by a lack of data focus only on officers within a single, large agency. no official national data on criminal acts committed by police officers exists. is police criminality pandemic or rare?

Purpose identify the types of crimes committed by officers; determine the frequency with which these crimes occur; identify possible correlates of police crime.

Data Database of over 17,000 crimes committed by county and municipal law enforcement officers in the state of Florida from 1977-2014; Data collected and maintained electronically by Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Easily accessible to the public;

The Data Problem Data were requested from FL, GA, AL, TN, MS, SC. GA maintains paper files. SC maintains an electronic database Refused access since data includes personal info. TN does not provide access to its data. AL and MS did not respond to multiple requests.

Previous Studies Alcohol-related crime, the misuse of firearms, and domestic violence (Stinson Sr., Liederbach, & Freiburger, 2012); Drug use (Carter, 1990; Carter & Stephens, 1988; Mollen, 1994) and drug-related crimes (Stinson, et al, 2013); Excessive force and drunken driving (Dean & Gottschalk, 2011); and Testilying--falsifying information in official reports and fabricating probable cause statements in applications for search warrants (Mollen, Baer, Evans, Lankler, & Tyler, 1994.

The Current Study Findings Officer-level correlates of crime Majority of crimes were committed by White (70.5%) male (91.5%) officers. Gender male=91.5%; female=8.5%; Race White 70.7%, Black 15.1%, Hispanic 12.7%, Asian, Native American, and others combined, 1.5%;

Findings Mean age was 30.2 years; Most crimes were committed by younger officers 59.9% of cases by age group 21 to 30 25.7% by age group 31 to 40. Mean age at the time of offense for male officers was slightly older (30.3 years old) than females (29.5 years old). Mean years of employment was 8.1 years. Less experienced officers (0-10 years) committed 70.4% of crime.

Findings Organizational correlates of crime Cases from police department were about 57.2% and 42.8% were from the sheriff’s office. The gender ratio was similar between police departments (91.9%) and sheriff’s offices (91%). Mean sworn population for agencies was 117

Findings Types of crimes committed 146 separate criminal acts Perjury (16%) Drug offenses (5.5%) Assault (5.4%) Theft (5.3)

Findings

Recent News AP: Hundreds of officers lose licenses over sex misconduct (Nov. 1) 1,000 officers nationally decertified for sex crimes between 2009 and 2014

Conclusions Reliable data sources are not available or easily accessible. Policy-makers cannot make informed decisions on administrative controls that might reduce the criminal conduct of officers without first understanding the prevalence of police criminality.

Conclusions Identifying specific crimes could better inform police policy, training, and responses to misconduct. Identifying crimes committed by police officers can establish a baseline and inform scholarship on police misconduct and other forms of police deviance.

Questions?