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

Abstract

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.