Publications

2023

If the face fits: predicting future promotions from police cadets' facial traits

Ian T. Adams, Scott M. Mourtgos, Christopher A. Simon, Nicholas P. Lovrich

Journal of Experimental Criminology (2023)

Can police cadets' facial traits predict whether they will be promoted in their careers? Using archival photographs of police cadets and machine learning-based facial analysis, we examine whether perceived facial traits (competence, dominance, attractiveness, trustworthiness) are associated with future career advancement. Our results suggest that perceived facial competence, but not other traits, is positively associated with promotion.

The 'War on Cops,' retaliatory violence, and the murder of George Floyd

Michael Sierra-Arevalo, Justin Nix, Scott M. Mourtgos

Criminology (2023)

The police murder of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests in the summer of 2020 and revived claims that public outcry over such high-profile police killings perpetuated a violent 'war on cops.' Using data collected by the Gun Violence Archive on firearm assaults of U.S. police officers, we use Bayesian structural time series modeling to empirically assess if and how patterns of firearm assault on police officers were influenced by the police murder of George Floyd. Our analysis finds that the murder of George Floyd was associated with a 3-week spike in firearm assaults on police, after which the trend dropped to levels only slightly above that which were predicted by pre-Floyd data.

De-fanged

Ian T. Adams, Scott M. Mourtgos, Kyle McLean, Geoffrey P. Alpert

Journal of Experimental Criminology (2023)

Police canine (K-9) deployments resulting in bites are a use-of-force that generates public concern, yet few studies have directly examined what factors are associated with the public's perceptions of these encounters. Using a factorial vignette survey experiment with a national sample, we find that the presence of a suspect weapon, the suspect's behavior, and the severity of the bite are significant predictors of perceived reasonableness. Race of the suspect, by contrast, does not independently predict public perceptions.

2021

Comparing 911 and emergency hotline calls for domestic violence in seven cities: What happened when people started staying home due to COVID-19?

Tara N. Richards, Justin Nix, Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams

Criminology & Public Policy (2021)

Stay-at-home orders issued across the globe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about increased domestic violence (DV). Theory and limited early evidence support this possibility, and in the United States, police agencies have reported increases in DV calls during the pandemic. However, DV-serving agencies have reported decreases in contacts suggesting possible underreporting. We compare trends from 911 calls and DV hotline calls/texts in seven cities before and after the start of the pandemic.

Elevated Police Turnover Following the Summer of George Floyd Protests: A Synthetic Control Study

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Justin Nix

Criminology & Public Policy (2021)

The police murder of George Floyd and ensuing social unrest has raised concerns about a mass exodus of officers from policing. We use the synthetic control method to examine police workforce trends in a large U.S. municipal police department following the summer of 2020. Our findings indicate that officer resignations significantly increased in the months following the Floyd protests, while retirements were not significantly affected.

Challenging the Ordinality of Police Use-of-Force Policy

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Samuel R. Baty

Criminal Justice Policy Review (2021)

Police agencies typically construct and teach their force policies in an ordinal manner, reflecting an assumption that the varying types of force exist on a continuum. This study challenges that assumption by examining the effect of different use-of-force techniques on public perceptions of police use-of-force. Utilizing a framing experiment with a nationally representative sample, we find that respondents do not perceive police use-of-force in an ordinal manner. Implications for police policy and training are discussed.

High-Stakes Administrative Discretion: What Drives Body-Worn Camera Activations?

Ian T. Adams, Scott M. Mourtgos, Sharon H. Mastracci

Public Administration Review (2021)

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are a high-profile public administration tool with significant implications for government accountability, transparency, and public trust. Despite their importance, we know very little about what drives the administrative decisions to activate (or not activate) these devices in the field. This study addresses this gap by examining the factors associated with BWC activation decisions among police officers.

Improving victim engagement and officer response in rape investigations: A longitudinal assessment of a brief training.

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Sharon H. Mastracci

Journal of Criminal Justice (2021)

Improving police response to sexual assault victims remains an important priority for law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve. We evaluate a brief, evidence-based training program designed to improve victim engagement and officer response in rape investigations. Using a longitudinal research design, we find that the training significantly improved officer knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy regarding sexual assault investigations.

COVID-19 vaccine program eliminates law enforcement workforce infections: a Bayesian structural time series analysis

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams

Police Practice & Research: An International Journal (2021)

COVID-19 has critically affected law enforcement agencies, with officer infections and quarantines undermining departments' ability to serve the public. We use Bayesian structural time series (BSTS) modeling to assess the effect of a police department's COVID-19 vaccine distribution program on officer infections. We find the vaccine distribution program led to a statistically significant decrease in officer infections, effectively eliminating COVID-19 infections in the department's workforce.

Mandatory Sexual Assault Kit Testing Policies and Arrest Trends: A Natural Experiment

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Justin Nix, Tara N. Richards

Justice Evaluation Journal (2021)

Many US jurisdictions have adopted policies mandating the testing of all sexual assault kits (SAKs) collected by law enforcement. Proponents of these policies argue that mandatory testing will lead to more arrests and convictions. We exploit a natural experiment in which one police department adopted mandatory SAK testing while other agencies in the same metropolitan area did not. Using a difference-in-differences design, we examine whether mandatory testing affected arrest trends for sexual assaults.

The Ethics of Emotional Labor in Public Service: The Case of Children's Services Forensic Interviewers

Sharon H. Mastracci, Scott M. Mourtgos

Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance (2021)

The purpose of this paper is to reframe child forensic interviewing in terms of emotional labor. Child forensic interviewing practice illustrates a public service function that demands emotional labor yet fails to empower its workers with skills to preserve their personal wellbeing. Under an ethic of care, public servants are not the means to organizational ends. Failing to articulate emotional labor demands fosters occupational stress and burnout.

2019

Assessing Public Perceptions of Police Use-of-Force: Legal Reasonableness and Community Standards

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams

Justice Quarterly, 37(5) (2019)

Investigations and prosecutions of police use-of-force incidents are typically based on the legal standard of 'objective reasonableness,' formulated by the Supreme Court in Graham v. Connor (1989). More recently, discussions have pivoted toward whether community expectations may deviate from existing legal standards. We design and implement a survey that utilizes a series of experimental factorial vignettes to measure public perceptions of police use-of-force. We leverage an item response theory framework to assess whether public standards for police use-of-force align with legal standards. Our results suggest that the public, regardless of respondent race, generally supports use-of-force that is legally reasonable, and that legally unreasonable use-of-force fails to garner public support.

The rhetoric of de-policing: Evaluating open-ended survey responses from police officers with machine learning-based structural topic modeling

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams

Journal of Criminal Justice, 64 (2019)

The study extracts latent topic models from open-ended survey responses and tests the relationship between the resulting models and police officers' motivation to engage in proactive policing. Using structural topic modeling, a type of unsupervised machine learning-based text analysis, the study demonstrates how researchers can gain additional insight into police attitudes. The analysis establishes topics of Professionalism and Distortion as significant predictors of proactivity sentiments, while Naivety has no significant association.

The Overlooked Perspective of Police Trust in the Public: Measurement and Effects on Police Job Behaviors

Scott M. Mourtgos, Roger C. Mayer, Richard A. Wise, Holly O'Rourke

Criminal Justice Policy Review, 31(5) (2019)

Trust between police and citizens is a central concern in modern policing, yet research has focused primarily on the public's trust of police. We address this gap by developing and validating a measure of police trust in the public. Using data from a survey of police officers, we demonstrate that police trust in the public is a multidimensional construct comprising ability, benevolence, and integrity components.

The Effect of Prosecutorial Actions on Deterrence: A County-Level Analysis

Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams

Criminal Justice Policy Review, 31(4) (2019)

In the current study, we examine prosecutorial decisions that affect the certainty, celerity, and severity of punishment at the county level in the state of Florida. We find that prosecutors' effect on the certainty and celerity of punishment was associated with lower levels of crime, whereas their effect on the severity of punishment was not. Together, these findings highlight the role of the prosecutor in shaping the general deterrent environment within a county.

2018

The consequences of restricting police arrest authority: less deterrence and more crime

Scott M. Mourtgos, Richard A. Wise, Thomas Petros

Policing: An International Journal, 41(2) (2018)

Past research indicates that increasing police arrests deters crime. However, little research exists on how restricting police arrests affects crime. The purpose of this paper is to test whether restrictions on police authority to arrest affects deterrence and crime rates. The data consisted of crime statistics for 105 criminal suspects from a medium-sized police department in the western USA. A 2x4 mixed analysis of variance compared the suspects' criminal activity for a four-month period before and after the arrest restrictions were imposed to ascertain how they affected deterrence and crime rates. The restrictions on police arrests significantly increased the crime rate.